The Beehive
by Tumbleweed1
Summary: With a certain discovery Relena's world shatters around her. Hoping to somehow salvage the remaining pieces she takes out her primal desires on her bodyguard. She will rue the day she ever crossed Tyler Marcus. 1xR
1. Scandal, Conspiracy and an Old Friend

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters associated with it. This is simply a non-profit fictional story that a no life fan of the series decided to write in his spare time for jollies.  
  
AN: This is probably unnecessary but I thought I'd comment right here and now that some of the concepts and ideas in this fanfiction are borrowed or were inspired by concepts in Xenogears and Star Trek. I did try to include many of my own thoughts, however. I would also like to mention that I've only seen the TV series and Endless Waltz (Special Edition). I've read a few things about the mangas but I've never actually read or seen one myself so if there is anything in this story that is inconsistent with the mangas that's why.  
  
The Beehive  
  
Chapter 1: Scandal, Conspiracy and an Old Acquaintance  
  
DATE: February 14, 203 AC LOCATION: The Presidential Residence of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 8:32 AM ~*~*~  
  
"Are you sure?" asked Relena, eyes intensely examining the document in her hands.  
  
Mr. Barker, her secretary of the treasury sighed, he wiped off some of the perspiration that was gathering just beneath his, now graying, hairline and reluctantly answered, "Ms. President, there can be no doubt about it now, someone has been falsifying the books. These aren't just isolated instances, a considerable amount of money is missing."  
  
Relena lifted her lead weighted eyes off of the paper and desperately struggling to keep her feelings of panic from infiltrating her voice, stood up out of her seat and asked, "How much exactly?"  
  
The middle-aged politician timidly pulled a pen out of his suit's left breast pocket and wrote something down on a small peace of paper and handed it to the caramel blonde young woman behind the desk. Relena glanced at the paper and for a moment just starred at it expressionless. About ten seconds or so past until Relena furiously crumpled it up and callously threw it into a nearby waste paper basket. She gracelessly plopped down back in her seat and rotated around to face her office window. She slouched down in her plush chair and just stared out the window with her deep blue eyes aimlessly for at least a minute.  
  
Mr. Barker, wondering weather she had forgotten he was still there began to speak, "Uh. President Darlian..?"  
  
Relena turned back around, eyes closed, head resting in her hands just above her eyebrows to face Mr. Barker. A strong edge of anger and annoyance were present in her voice as she began to speak, "How could you..?" Relena stopped herself, took a deep breath and started over in a calm -but still tainted with a hint of anger voice, "I'm sorry. How could you just loose track of that much money?"  
  
"I'm not sure exactly, but it looks like someone's been making hundreds, maybe thousands of small over estimates on every day government expenses, for quite some time too. It couldn't have been just some random things; it was well planned. It was pure luck that the accountants even found out about this so early." The man stood statue still, trying to hide his anxiety; he knew what she was going to ask next, and he didn't want to have to answer it.  
  
"Do you have any suspects?"  
  
Mr. Barker's adam's apple rolled up and down his throat as he took a big gulp of air in, "No ma'am, expenses all across the board have been over estimated, they're not confined to just one department. As I said, this was definitely well planned."  
  
Relena opened her mouth, about to say something but decided against it, 'What do I pay you people for?' she silently asked herself. "Please try to get to the bottom of this ASAP; you're dismissed."  
  
Mr. Barker nodded and timidly slipped out of the room while Relena started writing a memo. By this time she had realized that if this got out now, she'd probably be the first one people would suspect. In many ways it's so much easier to head a nation during times of war then it is during times of peace. During war, everyone focuses on the external threat and doesn't pay attention to what's going on inside the government itself; so all a politician would need to do to be hailed as a great leader is win. However, if an external foe isn't clearly present the people will try to make one, and it's usually the biggest most powerful thing they can find, their own government. So during times of peace if a leader isn't absolutely flawless - which is impossible - their own people will persecute them for every little mistake they make and it doesn't matter how trivial it is, how much control they actually have over it or how relevant the mistake actually is in regards to the leader's ability to lead. Poor Relena, now starting her sixth year as president (her last year of her third term), had been learning this difficult lesson the hard way. Even though the now twenty-two year old has maintained the image of an innocent, well meaning and untainted young woman, her intelligence, ability to lead and even her morality had been called into question by newspapers and political rivals numerous times, especially during elections, which were coming up in December. One thing was clear to Relena; if the real culprit wasn't exposed she was ruined.  
  
Relena sealed the memo in an envelope and walked outside her office to see her office secretary, Cheryl, typing up documents on her computer. Cheryl looked up from her work, brushed her bouncy red hair to the side and gave Relena a cheery smile, "Good morning Ms. Darlian, is there something you wanted?"  
  
Relena sighed a bit, it was obvious she was stressed, 'good old Cheryl', she though, 'she's always so energetic and cheery.' She snapped out of her momentary silence and remembered what she came her to do, "Cheryl, isn't Heero in yet?"  
  
Cheryl face shifted to a concerned expression and shook her head a bit, "No, of course not. Remember? You told him he didn't have to come in until 9:30 today", she answered.  
  
Disappointment struck the stressed out politician's face as she began to regret her telling Heero to try and take it easy. "Yeah, that's right. I remember now", she handed Cheryl the envelope and continued, "Could you please give this to Heero as soon as he does come in, it's urgent."  
  
"Sure thing." Cheryl gave her a smile and a quick wink. She didn't know what was going on but whatever it was it looked like the President could probably use some cheer. She caught Relena's eyes wondering to a red and pink heart-shaped card that Cheryl had left lying on her desk. She blushed a bit and commented, "It's from Alen."  
  
"Oh, That's right, you were telling me before; so you two are getting along well then, I guess?" Relena really didn't want to talk about love right now, but there didn't seem to be a way out of it since Cheryl caught her looking at the valentine. 'Heero probably won't even remember it's Valentine's day let alone do anything for it', she thought, 'but then again why would he?'  
  
A warm grin stretched across Cheryl's face as she replied, "Yeah, he's taking me out tonight after we get off work." Cheryl hesitated a bit before continuing, "Do you have anyone for valentine's day?" Cheryl knew that it was a risk asking her but it was a question she had to ask.  
  
As expected, Relena's expression became even more depressed as she let out a deep sigh and plainly answered, "no", a hint of contempt within her manner.  
  
"Well, you know, I think Alen's brother broke up with his girlfriend a week or two ago" Cheryl proclaimed with a merry confidence, "I'm sure he'd be thrilled to take the President out on a date. Maybe you could wear your hair up or something so you won't get noticed or."  
  
Relena interrupted, "Thanks a lot Cheryl", her expression alleviated a little, "but I don't think so." Relena began walking back to her office.  
  
Cheryl, a little discouraged by this scrunched up her bottom lip for a moment as she thought. "Well, maybe I can persuade Heero to do something with you, eh?" Cheryl winked at Relena, almost giggling at her own cleverness, "That is, if he's available, I bet he's a real Romeo in private", she rolled her eyes, "I bet the girls go wild when he's in the room."  
  
A small, bitter sweet, almost depressed laugh escaped the office bound Relena's mouth, "heh.heh.hee. Yeah, that'll be the day."  
  
~*~*~TIME: 8:59 AM ~*~*~  
  
Heero walked by the presidential reception room heading directly for his personal office. In recent years, the combined factors of Relena being his employer and the fact that her really didn't have much else to do with his time had caused Heero to become a total workaholic. Under normal circumstances, when he wasn't on night guard duty, it was his routine to check up on any possible new threats for an hour or so in the mourning before going to the president's office to personally check every inch of it for booby traps; he was usually done by about 6:00 AM. However, since Heero took Relena up on her offer to come in late today, he was in more of a rush then usual. Cheryl caught up with him, as he was about to enter his office. She looked at her watch, "Wow, you're late agent Yuy, your only. gasp. one measly half-an-hour early. You're really letting yourself go," she teased.  
  
To Heero, Cheryl had always been an annoyance; but then, so were a lot of people Heero met. "Don't you have something to type?" Heero interrupted, barely maintaining a face and tone of voice free of irritation, or any other emotion for that matter.  
  
"Don't you have a life outside guard duty", Cheryl shot back, "the president doesn't give you the okay to come in late every now and then because she thinks rest will hurt you, you know. I swear, I even see you here on your days off."  
  
Heero's face maintained it's frosty granite composure, "I did sleep in; there's just no reason to dawdle back at my apartment while the president is here. Did you have something to say to me or not?"  
  
Cheryl rolled her eyes, "Oh well, guess it's just as well", she handed Heero the sealed envelope containing Relena's memo, "she said it's urgent", she added. Something was up, Heero was putting in more effort to try and brush Cheryl off then usual. As she tried to figure out what was prompting it she noticed something unusual, Heero was carrying a bag from a local mall along side with his briefcase. "What's in the bag", she asked inquisitively.  
  
Heero ignored her question and looked over the memo. His expression became intensely serious as he folded the memo up, tucked it in his coat pocket and threw the bag into his office before shutting the door. He then bolted off to try and find Relena. "Thank you", he said before hastily brushing past Cheryl and turned the corner just ahead of her.  
  
Cheryl looked back at Yuy's office and for a moment considered trying to go back and find out what Heero actually had in the bag but ended up deciding against it. As she went back to her desk and sat down she began to think about it some more. She had heard plenty of gossip from various housemaids and other staff saying that Relena and Heero were pursuing a secret romantic relationship, many of which she found to be a little overboard so she completely dismissed most of them as just a bunch of nonsense. Yet, at the same time, as much as they tried to make their relationship appear purely professional, it was obvious to anyone that there was undoubtedly an attraction between the two, so she didn't completely dismiss all the possibilities. Several of the rumors were still too shocking to be taken seriously though. That however, didn't stop the super market tabloids from printing, among many other bizarre and slanderous things, crazy stories about the president's love life, which in actuality, save for the long talks the two of them sometimes had and the countless times they would find themselves staring at the other when they didn't think they were looking, didn't exist. According to the Earth Sphere Questioner, for example, President Darlian had been pregnant on numerous occasions with the children of either Heero or other member of her staff, females included; aliens; random perverts off the street that had claimed to have had a one night stand with her; a demon baby and on one occasion a clone of her brother, Milliardo. All the nonsense surrounding the fact that Relena was a young woman in her prime that didn't outwardly appear to have a man in her life aside, Cheryl began to think to herself, 'Maybe Ms. Darlian does have a valentine after all.'  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 12:03 PM ~*~*~  
  
Heero was escorting Relena to the east wing's meeting room. Even though politically she was in the middle of a crisis she couldn't have it appear as though something was wrong until she had more information, so all scheduled meetings were still on.  
  
No matter how often Relena looked at Heero in the black suit and sunglasses he wore to work it just didn't seem natural. She had to do it though, that raggedy old tank top he liked to sport accompanied by either spandex shorts or jeans simply wasn't an appropriate attire for a presidential bodyguard. She did admire what good fight he put up about it, however.  
  
Relena entered the room to find that Mr. Almond, some of her other advisors and all the guests from the Darter Corporation were already in their seats. "I'm sorry for being a little late", the young president stated, "I had some other matters to attend to." She promptly took her seat and folded her hands on the table.  
  
The guests from the Darter Corporation, including the corporate president Thomas Darter, himself, included several other executives and some of the top researchers for the Beehive Project. The Beehive Project had actually been initially proposed during the days leading up to the end of the Alliance by high-level scientists interested in further developing nano-bot technology far beyond what it was currently at. The idea behind it was initially to revolutionize the fields of medicine but it was realized that they could be used in many other ways as well. However, the project was never brought into serious consideration by the Alliance leadership due to the troubled times; and after Oz overthrew the Alliance, the Romefeller Foundation was simply to fixated on mobile suits to consider the Beehive Project at all. It wasn't until 197 AC that the previous president finally approved the project when the Darter Corporation, under new leadership, proposed it again. Now, five years later, the Darter Corporation was reporting that it's made considerable progress and that they are ready for Mr. Almond, President Darlian's chief minister of technological development, to make any inspections he needs to in order for them to continue their research.  
  
Mr. Darter stood up, "Ms. President, I have no need to give an extended speech, for the historical technological developments that the Earth Sphere Unified Nation has made possible by funding the Darter Corporation's research and development in nano-bot technology and neurological interface devices have led to what could possibly be the most influential piece of technology in human history, the Beehive. However, I should probably leave the explaining up to our two lead scientists in the final stages of this project, Dr. Jonathan and the young Dr. Marcus."  
  
Two men dressed in lab coats stepped forward, the first one, Dr. Jonathan was an African gentleman who was getting on in his years. His dark and frail looking figure had wrinkles in almost every part of skin that was visible. The second scientist, Dr. Marcus, was a young man who was somewhere in his twenties. His lanky form rose to about 6'1", he had pale skin, brown hair and brown eyes covered up by a pair of oversized glasses, which were at that moment focusing squarely on Relena.  
  
It took her a few seconds but she eventually recognized him. Relena stood up, an awestruck expression of shock pasted on her bewildered face. "Tyler..?" she asked, still dumbfounded about her meeting him again like this.  
  
A cocky grin began to grow on the left side of Tyler's acne scarred mug, "I see you remember me.", his expression became one of resentment as he added with a hint of contempt, "princess!"  
  
Mr. Darter shot Tyler a dirty look, telling Tyler to take his seat. Tyler reluctantly obeyed his boss' silent order.  
  
Relena, sunk back down in her seat, Tyler's message was loud and clear. 'I don't need this now', the slumping girl thought, 'He's still mad at me, even after ten years. Of course, it's not like I can blame him for how he feels, though.' She looked back at Heero who was standing by the door, she couldn't see his eyes behind the sunglasses but his stern expression appeared unchanged.  
  
Dr. Jonathan began, "As we all know, nano-bots are simply microscopic machines that can be used to complete various small tasks. However, since it's almost impossible to coordinate their efforts they haven't been very useful to humanity; that is until now. Ms. President, I introduce to you and your staff, the Beehive." The meeting room grew dark as a screen on the wall behind Dr. Jonathan and Dr. Marcus lit up showing the image of a large supercomputer that actually looked something like a beehive. Dr. Jonathan proudly continued in his rough old voice, "The Beehive is a supercomputer that was designed to be able to coordinate the activities of trillions of nano-bots at one time. More importantly, the Beehive can take instructions from a variety of different input devices, including a direct link to the mind of a human being. Since these new nano-bots, which we nicknamed 'bees', are so small and precise, they can easily construct or repair things that humans need a microscope to even see. For example", the image on the screen changed to that of a man in a wheel chair, "this poor soul had his spinal cord severed; however,", the image changed again to pictures of the man walking around just fine as if nothing were ever wrong, "the bees were able to completely repair the damage at the cellular level in a few hours. Even more amazing is this man's story", the image switched to a man who was missing an arm and a leg and then to that same man with all his limbs in tact, "The war cost him an arm and a leg but with the help of the bees he completely regenerated in a day's time."  
  
By this time many of the president's staff members who attended the meeting were had grown very interested in what was being presented to them, except for Heero who didn't outwardly seem to be effected at all and also Relena, who seemed only seemed to be half paying attention.  
  
Dr. Marcus began his part of the presentation. With confidence he stood up in front of the group and picked up where Dr. Jonathan left off, "The possible uses for nano-bots aren't just limited to the medical field however. With the use of sub-nano-bots we found that we could even rearrange simple molecules. Imagine what could be done. think about how this could speed up the terraforming project. With the use of a few Beehives, Mars's atmosphere could become breathable in a few short years. We humans could become the true masters of our environment."  
  
Dr. Marcus' speech continued as he began to explain the complicated operations behind the Beehive, but Relena was simply too lost in thought. 'I always knew he was a genius', she mutely stated, 'but still, earning a doctorate degree, already. Of course, no one would have believed that I'd be president of the world nine years ago.' A small cold smile began to form as she recalled a time in which her mother was lecturing her about her about a bad grade she had, but only for a second; and then realized she was missing Tyler's speech.  
  
".and so", Tyler was concluding, "humanity is at a revolutionary breakthrough in our technological abilities and I, as I'm sure the rest of you all are, am very anxious to see how the world will change due to this breakthrough." Tyler sat down again to allow Mr. Darter to speak.  
  
"The Darter Corporation is very excited to be the one to pioneer The Beehive Project and as you've seen we're already in our final stages of testing. You can send Mr. Almond's team to inspect for yourselves any time you desire."  
  
Relena was still unsure weather she missed anything important or not but she had to say something, "Thank you, that was all very interesting. I'll be sure to fill out the paperwork for Mr. Almond's trip later today." She hoped that sounded about right.  
  
As people began to leave the room Relena caught up with Tyler, "Tyler!?"  
  
Tyler stopped dead in his tracks and tensed up his shoulders a little, "Yes, Ms. President?"  
  
Relena sighed a bit and continued, "I'm really sorry about what I did; we were young and I just."  
  
'You're still young' Tyler internally retorted. He turned his head around and loosened up his shoulders a bit, "It's all in the past Relena, I forgive you." And with that, he followed the group out of the meeting room, leaving Relena alone with Heero.  
  
Heero lifted up his sunglasses revealing his indigo blue eyes, to the brim with concern. "What was that about" the bodyguard asked, almost suspiciously.  
  
Relena met his gaze with hers; it was clear that Dr. Marcus' presence was making her even more depressed then she already was. "He's just a boy I used to know, that's all" she answered somberly.  
  
"I see", Heero let his sunglasses fall back down to cover his eyes. "His speech was just about how the things work", he continued, "He's one of the biggest nerds I've ever seen."  
  
Relena couldn't help but laugh a little upon hearing that; Heero didn't say something funny all that often, so when he did she made the most of it. "As often as I see you with a computer, your one to talk", she playfully jeered.  
  
Heero opened the door for her. His expression became serious again; "So, should I resume with my investigation immediately?"  
  
"Oh.", Relena had almost completely forgot about that, "Yes. Thank you Heero, you're really going above the."  
  
"That's why you hired me", Heero bluntly interrupted.  
  
Relena's voice sank back down again, "Well. no, that's not the only reason."  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 12:45 PM ~*~*~  
  
The limousine carrying Mr. Darter, Dr. Jonathan and Dr. Marcus was departing from the Presidential Residence. Mr. Darter closed the window between the driver and passenger area and began to cautiously speak to his head scientists, "Apparently she has recently found out about the. misplaced funds. Luckily, she doesn't have a clue what's really going on; Mr. Almond does a thorough job."  
  
Dr. Jonathan's wrinkled face seemed almost ebony striped in the dim light of the limousine. "Even if she did find out, I doubt that she'd be able to do anything about it; all that's left is to install the implants", he pompously added.  
  
"Still", Mr. Darter continued, pausing for a second and then glared directly at Tyler, "we should be careful what we say, shouldn't we?"  
  
Tyler rolled his eyes and let out a small, exasperated snort. "You don't need to worry about it, she doesn't suspect a thing; what did I tell you? She's as dumb as a door knob", Tyler turned his head towards the window, and watched the street light posts zoom by as the limousine drove down the street; he silently added, 'but even so, she's still twice as smart as you two.'  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 2:45 PM ~*~*~  
  
".and the Conservative Party will eventually get a hold of this", Mr. Kushplacky lamented.  
  
Relena was at her desk filling out some paperwork. She signed at the bottom of the last page in the packet and handed it to Mr. Almond, "Here, it's all done."  
  
Mr. Almond accepted the paperwork from Relena's hands, and promptly walked out the door, before beaming Relena his big ivory white smile.  
  
Relena turned back around to her head political advisor, Mr. Kushplacky and wearily stated, "You may continue."  
  
"I was about to say" Mr. Kushplacky continued, his voice now expressing annoyance. He stopped again as Heero came into the room carrying a manila folder marked confidential. Heero, realizing that that Relena was in the middle of a meeting began to silently exit.  
  
"You may stay Agent Yuy", Relena assured him. Heero nodded and came fully back into the room before shutting the door.  
  
A truly annoyed Mr. Kushplacky went on, "If we don't solve this problem soon it could seriously damage your reputation and jeopardize your upcoming campaign. There's bound to be some patsy down in accounting or something that we can pin this whole mess on, isn't there?"  
  
"Patsy!?", Relena cried, "You're talking like you think I actually have something to do with this!"  
  
Mr. Kushplacky, realizing that he just insulted her, paused for a moment to think and then apologetically responded, "I'm sorry Ms. President, I wasn't thinking clearly about what I was saying. I was simply trying to suggest a way to remedy the situation."  
  
"Well if that's your solution then don't", Relena infuriatingly shot back, "I'm not just going to 'pin it on some patsy' who doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it. We'll find out who is really responsible and bring HIM to justice. And as for my campaign.", Relena paused for a moment to look at Heero.  
  
'Why is she looking at me', Heero thought, his puzzlement hidden by the dark glasses he was wearing.  
  
The blonde politician returned her line of sight back to Mr. Kushplacky, "I wanted to inform you of a decision I recently made. I'm not going to be running for a fourth term."  
  
Even Heero was taken aback hearing that. 'Relena, what could you be thinking?', Heero contemplated as his jaw dropped. Relena was the only person in the world that Heero even thought deserved the position of president, why would she just quit now? Then he slowly began to realize what this might be about, 'No. she can't do this.'  
  
For about thirty seconds neither one of the three said anything until Mr. Kushplacky finally opened his mouth, "Are you. sure?"  
  
"Yes, I'm sure Mr. Kushplacky", Relena stated, an aura of anger and defiance in her manner. "At the end of this year I will have served as president for six years, I think that's long enough."  
  
"Does this have anything to do with this accounting scandal", Mr. Kushplacky questioned. "I'm sure that it will be fine if we handle it prudently. You still have a strong approval rating by the people. I don't think that."  
  
"That's quite all right", interrupted a now calmed down Relena, "My decision is final however. You may leave."  
  
An aggravated Kushplacky resentfully stood up and shot Heero a quick glare as he halfheartedly proceeded to the door. He paused for a moment, "Please, think about this more carefully before you tell anyone else", he pleaded before exiting the office.  
  
Heero folded up his sunglasses and placed them in his breast pocket. He just stood their looking at Relena, unsure of weather to say something or not.  
  
"Did you have something to show me Agent Yuy", the president's voice piped up.  
  
Heero remembered that he had come in here to hand Relena his report, or what there was of it. He decided he better wait before saying anything else because when she calls him Agent Yuy when it's just the two of them, she means business.  
  
"What did you find?" Relena was clearly more interested in the contents of the document Heero was handing her.  
  
Heero took a deep breath, "Not much", he reluctantly admitted. "Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing, and they sure as hell know how to cover their tracks too. What's for sure though is this had to have been planned someone pretty high up. It couldn't just be one rogue accountant, I do know that."  
  
Relena leaned back in her chair, "Do you think it could be Mr. Barker?" She didn't just want to point fingers before learning more, but he was the most obvious culprit.  
  
"No", he replied, "He's the first person I looked into. Besides, if I really did think it was him, I'd be personally questioning him right now instead of talking to you about it. The problem with that theory is that Mr. Barker wasn't in your advisory board at all until this term; your previous secretary of the treasury resigned after the heart attack, remember? And, as you can see from the records this seems to have been going on before that."  
  
Relena scanned page two of the document that Heero handed her and sighed. It wouldn't be as easy as she had hoped. "So that means whoever is behind it has been here for a while", she stated. Absolute seriousness, distress even, took hold of Relena's voice "Heero, you don't think I have anything to do with this, do you?" Relena simply didn't know what she'd do with herself if even Heero, her only real support for the past five years didn't trust her.  
  
Heero, of course, was baffled about why she would even ask such a stupid question. "Relena", he stated with absolute assuredness, "You're the only person in this whole building that I trust didn't have something to do with it."  
  
Some weight lifted off of Relena like she'd just taken off a lead vest; she rotated her chair to face Heero. "Thank you Heero, I just needed to hear something like that from someone."  
  
Heero wasn't sure why, but for a moment Relena seemed more attractive then usual. The sunlight shown through the window illuminating her smooth white suit and making her grand golden hair, which was pulled back in a pony tale with a silky black bow, glisten. Her cerulean eyes, though ravaged with worry and weariness, still seemed sparkled like the ocean. Personally, Heero always thought she looked better in a dress and with her hair let lose with the braids, like how she used to wear it; he'd never tell her that though. Besides, she looked just as angelic to him no matter how she wore her hair. He realized about then that he was doing it again, letting her beauty distract him from his work. It did remind him that he was planning to ask her a question a few minutes ago though. "Relena", he asked, "Why aren't you running for a fourth term?"  
  
"Why would you ask something like that Heero?" Relena inquired back. Her voice sank a little, she didn't want to be having this discussion with him now.  
  
Heero knew it wasn't any of his business but he had to know for sure; he felt it pompous to presume so but if Relena was doing this in hopes of pursuing some kind of romantic relationship with him he could never forgive himself. "I just think that you should make sure that no other individual is influencing this decision of yours, it effects a lot of people. You should take them into consideration first."  
  
Relena turned her head away from Heero and just looked down into nothingness for a moment as she thought about it. She broke her silence; "I guess if this all goes over okay and I support her campaign my vice has a good chance at the presidency. It's not like no one else could do my job."  
  
Heero had to consciously restrain himself from making a comment he might later regret; he just couldn't imagine anyone else ever filling Relena's place in government, she was one of a kind. However, he still had to say something, "No one could ever replace you. It's because of you that we have peace in the first place." Heero realized that he may have been giving Relena more credit then she deserves, but he didn't care, he wasn't about to just stand by as Relena threw her career away, especially if it was in any way for him.  
  
As she heard Heero's words, the anger and frustration Relena had been building up lately began to boil over. She didn't understand why she was so angry with him, not just angry but hurt too. She knew what he was getting at, or she hoped she knew at least. It's true that the thought had crossed her mind once or twice. a day, but still, she didn't think she was that hopeless. She was just so sick and tired of politics; and she couldn't believe that Heero, her only real close friend for the past several years couldn't see that.  
  
"You really have no idea; screw the world!" she snapped.  
  
Heero took a half step back in astonishment; he never thought he'd ever hear Relena say that, not in a million years. It just wasn't like her; she couldn't possibly mean this.  
  
Relena was about as surprised as Heero was about her emotional outburst, but her heated speech continued, "I've spent all this time trying to obtain and maintain peace and what do I get out of it? Nothing! Everyone makes judgments about everything I do, scandalous rumors about me are spread around the world on a daily basis, there are people that want me dead, every day I'm expected to make decisions that impact the lives of billions and no matter what I decide someone is always unhappy, I never have time for fun, I'm surrounded by greedy politicians all day, I'm overworked, underslept, I just found out today that nobody in my advisory board trusts me anymore and I'm totally stressed out! The people just use me Heero, and after they're satisfied they'll just throw me away. If I were living in a shack, in the woods, squeezing out the bastard children of an inbred redneck I'd be happier then I am right now! You'd do fine!"  
  
They both just froze right there, statue still, looking at each other for what seemed like hours. Neither, one of them was exactly sure where that last part came from nor what to say next.  
  
Relena, whose face had turned scarlet red, forced her expression to soften a little and finally broke the silence, "I'm sorry. I. you see. I. I don't even make sense anymore." She attempted to put on a smile to ease the tension. She couldn't live with herself if she somehow damaged the friendship she knew they did have.  
  
Heero just continued gawking, unsure of what to say. What was he supposed to say to something like that?  
  
"I just." Relena continued, "I can't." she paused for a moment and threw her head down in her hands, desperately trying to hold back the tears which had already begun to leak out. "Just. just go", she said.  
  
Whenever Heero wasn't sure how to feel, he always opted not to show emotion at all. He stoicly replied, "Yes ma'am", and left her office.  
  
Slowly, Relena picked her head up; she wiped a salty drop of moisture off her rose-red face. "Of course not." she commented as she moved to the next set of papers on her R&S (read & sign) pile.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
AN: Well, this is still just setup. Chapter two is mostly done, I've just got to proof read and edit it so it should be up within a day or two. I hoped you enjoyed this chapter because the next one isn't that incredibly different. There's no real action until chapter three but please hang in there.  
  
Also, please give me a review if you'd be so kind. 


	2. Reminiscence in the Fire Light

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters associated with it; I don't feel that there was any doubt in anyone's mind but there; I said it.  
  
AN: I'm sorry to say but this chapter is a bit on the sappy, dare I say it, fluffy side. Yes, even more so then the previous. I guess it gets a little lime-esque towards the end but it doesn't get too naughty. An R rating was probably going overboard but better safe then sorry I guess. Generally, I'd say you probably see worse on prime time television so don't get to giddy.  
  
The Bee Hive  
  
Chapter 2: Reminiscence in the Fire Light  
  
DATE: February 14, 203 AC LOCATION: The Presidential Residence of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 11:34 PM ~*~*~  
  
He was off duty now, as he walked through the hallways of the Presidential Residence, holding small-medium sized box under his arm, concealing it the best he could. His destination, the living quarters; the way he almost seemed to be sneaking through the halls might have given some the impression that he wasn't suppose to be there at all, if it wasn't for the fact that everyone who worked at the Presidential Residence knew who President Darlian's personal bodyguard was.  
  
Heero was cursing himself for what he was about to do, 'Damn it, what the hell was I thinking, taking Duo's advise. I mean Duo!'  
  
He cautiously knocked on the door to the living room Relena was supposed to be in, it was unusual for it to be closed. "Come in", answered a meek feminine voice after a moments wait.  
  
'You know, you don't have to go through with it,' a voice in Heero's head suggested as he slowly opened the door, 'if you just keep that box behind your back she probably won't notice.' Heero, liking this idea, and not really having the nerve to go through with his original plan complied. He was just trying to be a friend but after what happened earlier he wasn't sure how Relena would interpret it; he wasn't even sure how he interpreted it.  
  
He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him; it was dark. The only light in the room was coming from a crackling fire in the fireplace and the television, which was turned down low and seemed to be showing the end some cheap Valentine's Day flick. Heero Yuy didn't interpret this as a good sign; Relena rarely watched TV unless she was depressed and sure enough, there she was, sitting on the sofa with a bottle of wine on the nearby coffee table.  
  
She set her glass down on the coffee table and turned to face him, "Yes, Heero? What is it?"  
  
It was just as Heero feared, the flickering light was dim but he could tell that the area around her sparkling blue eyes was red and slightly moist, she had been crying. Heero had been finding her like this more and more lately, as much as he hated to admit it he had to face facts; Relena was slowly slipping into depression, day by day, right before his cold blue eyes. 'Oh no.' he thought, 'not again. Now I have to do something.'  
  
Heero opened up his mouth, unsure of what would come out, "I just wanted to let you know I'm leaving for the night", he hesitated but then went on, "I wanted to give you something. to cheer you up. You just seem depressed." Heero approached the young woman with the inquisitive face and handed her a bright yellow box that read, "CHOCO-SPHERES - deluxe package", on the front in big blue bubble letters. "I remember you saying they were your favorite", Heero explained.  
  
Choco-Spheres are a brand of candy that had first been put into production a little over a decade before the war. They actually seem like a basic type of candy. They were simply small balls of chocolate, marshmallow or caramel and peanut butter; however, they had gained massive popularity rather quickly and their almost addicting nature had led some to believe that they actually were. None of the lawsuits succeeded however, due to the fact that they weren't.  
  
Relena's eyes lit up with surprise and a warm smile formed as she accepted Heero's gift. "Thank you, Heero", she appreciatively replied.  
  
Now, Heero had to think of how to reply, he couldn't be too warm, especially now, or else she might take it the wrong way; but he didn't want to offend her either. "I should go now", Heero commented in a low monotone voice as he slowly made his way to the door.  
  
"No.", Relena begged, holding her hand out almost as if she was planning on grab his, "could you please, can you just stay here for a little while and talk." She scooted over a bit to make room for the former pilot and patted the cushion next to her, inviting him to sit down.  
  
Heero really didn't think it was a wise idea, but then again, he didn't want her getting drunk tonight either and he couldn't just say no to those seductively pleading blue eyes either. Plus, it isn't as though he personally didn't want to anyway; so in the end his emotions won out on this one. 'Okay Yuy', Heero silently began assuring himself as he hesitantly sat down next to the president, 'you can do this, just stay focused and maintain your composure.'  
  
Relena continued to smile, "Thank you, I just need someone to talk to", she explained. She opened the box of choco-spheres, greedily popped one of the shiny brown orbs in her mouth and began to chew. She lifted the box up towards Heero, offering him one.  
  
"There yours", he bluntly stated.  
  
Relena finished downing the first sphere and argued, "I can't eat all these; I'd get fat. Have some."  
  
Heero reluctantly obeyed, placing one of the candy pieces in his mouth as well. It was very sweet, he wasn't quite expecting it, or was used to eating such sweet things. It made sense though, that Relena's favorite candy was so sweet. 'Sometimes it's nice to eat something sweet', he began to think but cut himself off as he realized the possible implications of the notion.  
  
Relena leaned over and rested her head on Heero's shoulder. She did that sometimes, when she was feeling depressed or overwhelmed. Heero's shoulder just always made her feel safe for some reason; she drew strength from that shoulder, it was her shoulder. Heero, was never quite sure whether he should let her rest her head there but he secretly enjoyed it when she did, and if his shoulder was so comforting to her he didn't see any harm in letting her have it. He always tried to remain extra careful when she did that however, he didn't want to let himself succumb to his feelings and do something he might regret.  
  
The stone-faced man opened his mouth, "Are you really planning on quitting politics?"  
  
"Yes I am, at least for a little while", Relena answered, "I thought I made myself clear about that before." A hint of aggravation was in her voice but it was kept under control.  
  
"Why?" Heero asked, "You're so good at it."  
  
Relena picked up the TV remote and hit the power button, causing the screen to revert back to the blank, idle state that it's usually in. "Heero, how old am I?" she asked.  
  
Heero was puzzled at her question but he answered, "You turn twenty-three in April, right?"  
  
"I feel fifty"; she interjected. A moment's silence passed in which the only sound herd was the crackling and popping of the fire; until she continued, "Remember last month when I made that speech at that college? Didn't it just seem awkward to you?  
  
"No, not really, security could have been better but it wasn't that bad", Heero plainly answered.  
  
Relena sighed, "That's not what I meant Heero. It was just weird, is all. Here I was, speaking in front of all these people as their president, getting all this respect."  
  
"Or lack there of", Heero cut in as he recalled the streakers he caught. "What those bastards painted on their bodies. perverts."  
  
Relena knew what he was talking about, they had joked about it before. She laughed a little bit and continued, "Well, just that; all those students were about our age. None of them seemed half as stressed as I am. It just made me think about how I used to be. Before I became the princess of the Sanc Kingdom I used to be carefree, just like them. Most people our age are out having fun somewhere, especially tonight. I just feel that I'm wasting my best years here. I've done my service to society, don't I deserve to be happy too?"  
  
Heero really couldn't argue with that, and not say something that wouldn't come out right at least. "Then what do you plan on doing after you quit then?" Heero finally blurted out.  
  
"I never really thought about it that hard", Relena sheepishly admitted. "Definitely take it easy for a few months, I don't know what else. The possibilities seem almost endless though. When I was a little girl I had all sorts of childish fantasies about what I wanted to do when I grew up."  
  
"Wasn't being the president of the world one of them?" he asked in a voice which wile mostly emotionless did contain a slight prick of interest.  
  
Relena wasn't sure how to interpret that but she continued, "No, not really. I hated politics when I was little. I always dreamed about normal little girl stuff like being a dancer, or a model."  
  
Heero had to restrain himself from outright laughing, "A model..?"  
  
The mildly offended blond politician picked head up and shot Heero her "I'm hurt" glare. "Don't you think I'm pretty enough?", she almost pleadingly inquired.  
  
Heero realized he might be going to far, so his answer was to the point, "I don't see you inducing yourself to vomit after eating a cracker." Also, she was too short but he wasn't about to mention that part; he was pretty short too after all.  
  
Relena, a little relieved, gently giggled a bit and put her head back on Heero's shoulder, "Well, I don't plan on becoming a model so don't worry. It was just some fickle fantasy that most girls have."  
  
"Like being a princess?" Heero sarcastically goaded.  
  
Relena couldn't help but laugh at that; "Yes, just like that", she playfully affirmed. "That was another one, though. I used to fantasize all the time about Prince Charming, or some knight in shining armor would come riding in on a white horse and sweeping me off my feet. And then taking me to his kingdom were I'd live happily ever after as a princess." Relena couldn't help but drop that little hint; she just hoped she wasn't too obvious.  
  
"You got that one", Heero pointed out.  
  
"No, I didn't, not yet", Relena cheerily argued while popping another choco- sphere in her mouth. She chewed it a bit and continued, "no Prince Charming." Without realizing it she gently put her hand on Heero's arm.  
  
'Keep calm Heero', he internally preached to himself, 'don't panic; just say something unattractive. Wait why am I still holding back, she's quitting politics. She's still to good for me, she deserves Prince Charming and I'm not it.'  
  
"There was Zechs", Heero finally blurted. 'That was lame Yuy'  
  
Relena pulled away, half laughing, and gave Heero a soft slap on the arm, "Ew. He's my brother."  
  
"But Tallgeese was white", Heero cut in.  
  
'So was your gundam', Relena silently shot back in her own mind. Instead, she verbalized, "But Epyon was red and my brother is Milliardo Peacecraft, not Zechs Marquis; and that's still just gross."  
  
"At least your not a blue blood", Heero continued to tease.  
  
Relena gave her bodyguard a good smack in the chest before leaning back down against him. She was certainly feeling better; when it was just the two of them talking like people she sometimes forgot about her problems.  
  
Heero wasn't sure whether to curse himself in defeat or caress her long golden hair in victory. He ended up just sitting there with the blankest expression he could manage, like he normally did. He'd been having trouble hiding his emotions though; every year since the war ended he'd been getting worse. His eyes, in particular, tended to betray him most often.  
  
A warm smile was pasted on Relena's face as she sat leaning against her stiff faced bodyguard. Then she realized something, "Hey, this isn't fair. Now you have to tell me about what you use to fantasize about when you were little."  
  
"huh...?", Heero grunted, hoping that playing ignorant might somehow get him out of this.  
  
Relena wasn't about to let him though; she continued digging; "Come on, what do little boys fantasize about?"  
  
Heero's agitation was becoming apparent. "Why don't you ask a little boy then", he hissed.  
  
Relena wasn't about to give up, "please.", she pleaded with a puppy dog face.  
  
"I never really had time to fantasize; when I was little I was being trained as an assassin. A good meal seemed like a big enough dream to me", Heero was clearly annoyed, but internally he was feeling a lot more hurt then annoyed; his childhood was always painful to think about.  
  
It wasn't true what he told her either, he did have at least one dream. He used to dream that he could live in a house with people who loved him, just like everyone else. He wished he could live in his fantasy world, a world free of the pain and coldness he felt in what was day-to-day life. Most of all however, he wished he could get rid of the irrational guilt he felt whenever he used to think about his dream, like he didn't deserve happiness. Unfortunately, all of these fantasies had yet to come true.  
  
"So", Relena began, after an awkward half minute of staring into the fire, "what have you been doing lately?"  
  
"Investigating the accounting scandal, guarding you, organizing security for you speech on Tuesday.", Heero expressionlessly listed.  
  
"No, no, no." the blond politician interrupted, looking up at Heero with concern, "Have you been doing anything for fun lately?"  
  
The stoic man's answer was cold, simple and to the point; "no."  
  
"Well, what about Duo?" Relena continued to prod.  
  
Heero grunted a little, "What about Duo?"  
  
"I thought you two were friends or something", she inquired, "I was just wondering if you ever did anything with him anymore." Relena was partially flattered that Heero was so devoted to his job but at the same time concerned about it. She felt at least one of them should remain sane so she tried to give him breaks whenever she could, which he rarely took.  
  
"We've never really had much of an opportunity to do anything", the somewhat annoyed bodyguard answered, "We've stayed in contact but he's been acting dumber then usual. Ever since he got Hilde pregnant."  
  
A surprised Relena lifted her head up and looked at Heero in shock, "Hilde's pregnant!"  
  
"She's due in four months, I thought you'd know", was Heero's calmly surprised response.  
  
"No, I had no idea", Relena replied, feeling guilty for her ignorance. She had met Hilde and Duo a couple of times, they both seemed like good people. She met Duo back in the early months of the war, when he was hanging around with Heero and she first met Hilde on Libra in the ending days of the war. Unfortunately, her job kept her so busy Relena never had all that much time to become close friends either of them. She still met with them sometimes but they never became particularly close. About then the other part of Heero's sentence began to register. "What's he doing", she asked.  
  
Heero didn't want to answer that question; it could lead to another that he really didn't want to answer. He didn't see a way out of it though; "He thinks he's some kind of relationship expert now."  
  
"That's it?" the somewhat relieved Relena inquired, "you made it sound like it was something serious."  
  
It was something serious to Heero, seriously annoying and seriously could lead to something he seriously didn't want to admit to her. He was relieved that she didn't ask him to specify but he had to maintain his stone cold stance "I'm not surprised that he was the first one of us to get a kid, I almost feel sorry for it."  
  
"Awe.I think Duo will be a good father.", Relena sympathetically commented.  
  
"I always thought Quatre was the one of us that'd make the best father material; Duo doesn't take anything seriously and WuFei and Trowa are too much like me", Heero commented.  
  
"And what's wrong with you?", Relena asked, "I think your."  
  
Heero snickered a bit but kept it mostly inside, the thought of him teaching a miniature version of himself the five easiest ways to kill a man with your bare hands played through his head; he thought it was pretty obvious to anyone. "Not a chance in Hell am I having a kid", he interrupted. Heero had never thought about it that much in actuality, but he just assumed any kid that was unlucky enough to be his would hate him anyway so there was no point in toying with the idea.  
  
Relena sighed a bit, "hm. I wonder what it's like having kids", she verbally pondered. "I used to play with baby dolls a lot when I was little but I guess I never actually thought about it." She picked her head up and took another sip from her wine glass. "You don't really think it would really be so horrible though, do you? I mean, no one would be here if it was, so I guess a kid can't be that bad", she asked her now rather embarrassed bodyguard.  
  
It seemed odd to Heero that there would have been any doubts in Relena's mind; he had always just assumed she'd be a mother some day, not with him of course but with someone. He decided he'd change the subject; anything would be less uncomfortable then this. "So, I you never really told me earlier; who was that Tyler guy that was here at the meeting and why did you call you 'princess'?"  
  
Relena fell silent; she took a deep and then another sip from her wine glass. "You really want to know, Heero?" she hesitantly asked.  
  
"He might be a security threat", Heero dryly suggested.  
  
"No, not Tyler. There's a reason why he's like that Heero." Relena's head sunk down and she paused for a moment before beginning her story, "Before I met you, I was probably the most popular girl in school."  
  
~*~*~ FLASHBACK ~*~*~  
  
(OOC: Yeah, I know she would only know her point of view but I figured I'd treat the you with a flashback that was also in third person all knowing. Just don't tell Heeo and Relena, all right. *wink*)  
  
A thirteen-year-old Relena Darlian maneuvered her way through the flowing sea of students and lunch tables holding several books tightly against her chest. She knew that what she was about to do was almost a taboo for a girl of her social status, but it had to be done; she absolutely needed to pass her exams, and he was her best chance of doing it.  
  
She located her target, he was sitting in the back, all alone, like usual. He was reading something in a newspaper so he didn't notice her yet, good. Relena quickly looked over her reflection in a nearby window; hair was in place, makeup looked fine, her school uniform was in tact, all systems were go. She forced her prettiest smile and sat down next to her unsuspecting prey, Tyler Marcus.  
  
If you were to check the financial background of Tyler Marcus, you probably wouldn't suspect that he'd be attending a private school for rich kids; he couldn't exactly boast of a prestigious lineage. Tyler Marcus, though, could boast about one thing that only a hand full of people in that entire building could truly say with certainty; he had earned it. His family may not have been rich but he was a child prodigy in the realms of science and mathematics, and so, was awarded a scholarship from the institute. He wasn't any older then Relena, yet he was in, and acing science courses meant for seniors. There was one class, however, that she happened to attend with him, Literature. This also happened to be the same class she so desperately needed to pass the exam in.  
  
Tyler sensed a disturbance in his little corner of solitude, which wasn't a good sign; when people came near him at lunch it, was usually to bother him. He looked up from his writing expecting to see any number of hoodlums planning some indignation for him to endure, but instead, found the seductively beautiful face of Relena Darlian smiling at him. Needless to say, it was something out of a dream for him.  
  
"Hello, Tyler", a sweet feminine voice piped up, "you seemed lonely here all by yourself."  
  
Tyler was flabbergasted. Could this be true? Could Relena Darlian, the daughter of the Vice Forign Minister, the richest girl in school; the girl who practically had her own fan club was sitting next to HIM. No, this had to be some kind of joke, girls like that don't just socialize with the poor, acne plagued "nerd of nerds" of St. Gabrial. There she was though, sitting right next to him, with a smile and to say that Tyler hadn't been dreaming of an opportunity like this would be a blatant lie. But still he had to be cautious about this. "Uh. well, yeah. I was just uh. reading this paper here", Tyler's voice was soft and nervous, like he normally spoke when he was with someone he was unsure of, "why are you here?"  
  
Nothing was more disenchanting then a man with no confidence to Relena. 'Grr. this could take a while', she internally grumbled, 'he can't even speak outside of a classroom. But just stick to the plan, he's your ticket to a passing grade.' Her warm smile served as a shield, hiding her true agenda and discontent, she tried giggling a bit for extra measure; it sounded fake to her, but it looked like he bought it. "I told you, I thought you looked lonely here all by yourself."  
  
"yeah. uh.", Tyler was unsure what to say next, he didn't normally talk to girls, especially girls that were so pretty; so he responded in the safest way he could, "thanks."  
  
'Thanks? That's it? No cliché pickup line? This isn't much to work with.', she thought. She knew for certain that he liked her however; she caught him looking at her all the time, which was what gave her this cruel idea in the first place. Relena, like many pretty girls, had discovered something very interesting after hitting puberty, if you string a boy along you could get them to do just about anything. First, however, one must find a way of revealing ones desires without being too obvious. Relena found the answer lying on the table. She looked at the stack of books sitting right in front of the Nerd of Nerds with the big glasses. "So", she started, maintaining a primarily innocent sounding voice, "have you been studying for exams?"  
  
Tyler looked at his books, half scornfully, though he had a love of knowledge he also found his books to be almost a stigma. "Well, yeah, they are coming up next week", he commented, unsure of whether he should be proud in order to highlight his strength, or shamed in order to sound more manly.  
  
This was perfect, Relena could get right to business if she played her cards right. "Yeah, I'm so worried, I just don't get some of this stuff", she was careful to sound just helpless enough to be attractive, "and I really need to pass too." She pouted slightly, it was true that she seriously needed to pass, literature she never really paid much attention to and math and science she flat out didn't get.  
  
'An opportunity!', Tyler realized in excitement, 'I knew this day would come'. "What. uh. classes are you having trouble in?" he as coyly inquired.  
  
Relena's answer was casual as she could muster, "Normal stuff, math and science; I'm also having trouble in literature too."  
  
"I can help you!", Tyler immediately interjected. He realized he was losing his cool and calmed down, "I mean, math and science are my specialties; and I'm doing well in literature too. Maybe I could tutor you?"  
  
'Yes', Tyler was hers, hook line and sinker; now all she had to do was reel him in. She may not have been the best student in the world, school was only important to her because her mother made her do it; but she wasn't stupid. If you're going to get a tutor, you might as well make sure they know what they're doing, and everyone knew that Tyler Marcus was the best there was. Relena had to hide this feeling of accomplishment though and externally replace it with gratitude, "Oh really? Thank you Tyler."  
  
"I guess it really isn't a problem", Tyler casually admitted. "The school provides my room and board so I'm almost always here, do you want to start now?"  
  
Tyler's enthusiasm was cut short however, by yet another disturbance. He narrowed his eyes a bit and stiffened his shoulders, ready for anything, as he watched with discontent the muscular form of Bruce Bowman accompanied by several of his cronies, approach his table. Tyler and Bruce never really got along; Bruce was a muscle bound blockhead from the higher social levels, Tyler was a scronny little brain with eyes that no one in that whole school really associated with. This being the case, Tyler often found himself on the receiving end of everything from simple pranks to near violent harassment at the hands of that particular click. He didn't know why Bruce, in particular, liked to pick on him; he never did anything to Bruce per say; yet Bruce seemed to find it necessary. This had led Tyler to the conclusion that there were only two possible explanations; either Bruce was jealous of his abilities or he could still be sore about how much of a fool he made him look like in a class debate, possibly both. Either way, Tyler had come to despise the sight of that square head, topped off with clean cut blond hair and little beady eyes held up by a grease jug of a neck supported by a towering muscular body; all and all, a very intimidating sight to see for the tall yet lanky Nerd of Nerds.  
  
Bruce pretentiously walked up to Relena placing his hand on her shoulder, "Hey Relena, what are you doing sitting here with this guy?"  
  
Relena politely brushed Bruce's hand off of her shoulder and answered, "I was just here talking with him; he seemed lonely. He said he'd help me study for exams." She hoped Bruce was getting her message, 'go away, this isn't the time for one of your stupid testosterone highs'  
  
"I see", said Bruce with a tone of voice that was clearly illustrating to Tyler that he wasn't done with him. His eyes scanned the table looking for mischief. "What's this your reading!?", Bruce snatched the paper away from Tyler; Tyler frantically tried grab it back but it was to no avail. "Hm. what do we have here? 'Hundreds Die in a Blaze on a Colony'; serves them right, bombing an Alliance base."  
  
"Serves them right?" Tyler echoed in near horror, "people died in that terrorist attack! The Alliance Military shouldn't have been there in the first place; contrary to what your stupid shirt suggest. Now give it back!"  
  
The shirt Tyler was referring to was a T-shirt that Bruce had not actually worn, due to the dress code, but had shown off in school not long after a certain formal debate they had on this very issue. The shirt displayed several alliance mobile suits standing tall in a colony holding a giant Alliance flag; the words, "L5 Now" printed boldly across the top in a patriotic style.  
  
"Hey, what's this!?", one of the boys at Bruce's side snatched up one of the books that Tyler had on the table and began flipping through the pages with a cocky smirk on his face.  
  
Tyler made a dive for it but he wasn't fast enough and it was tossed to Bruce.  
  
Bruce read the cover, "Modern Nobles: Conspiracy Theories About the Secret Society, Oz", Bruce and his gang of muscle heads all snickered.  
  
Tyler had given up and just stood still clenching his fists, seething in fury. His face was red, his respiration was abnormal, he felt a balloon of infinite rage begin to expand in his gut, tearing him apart. He wasn't about to cry though, no he would never cry in front of them, not in front of anyone, even himself and especially not in front of a girl. That's just what they wanted; they wanted him to cry so they would have one more thing to hassle him about. He hated them; he hated them so much he couldn't see straight. He wanted nothing more then to just give to them slow torturous deaths right then and there, it was more then they deserved. He would some day though, someday, he vowed, he would get his revenge on all of them.  
  
"Quit it Bruce!" Relena furiously ordered.  
  
"Fine", Bruce reluctantly relented before tossing the book in a nearby wastebasket and retreating with his friends in laughter.  
  
As the young Relena watched Tyler reach into the garbage to retrieve his book and carefully brushing it off so as to not stain his school uniform, she couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor guy. "Are you all right?" she asked, quite legitimately concerned actually.  
  
"Yeah, I guess", Tyler meekly responded in resentment. It was a total lie of course. Tyler was far from all right, he wished he could just die right there or be blown away by some gust of wind like a pile of dust. Bruce and his band of thuds, made him look like a complete wiener in front of the prettiest girl he'd ever met. "Do you want to get to business now?" he finally asked, half in misplaced hostility.  
  
=====A FEW DAYS LATER=====  
  
Tyler and Relena were sitting at a table in the courtyard of the institution. Tyler was tutoring Relena in Literature before the morning bell rang. They were in the middle of discussing to poem, "Married to Prince Charming".  
  
"So basically what the author is trying to say is that there is no such thing as the perfect mate", Tyler explained. "Or at least", he continued, "that's how I interpreted it." He looked across the table at Relena, captivated by the way her blondish bronze hair shifted with an unexpected gust of wind.  
  
Relena couldn't help but be a little weirded out by Tyler's unusual terminology for husband, but that was only small potatoes compared to the rest of it. "I don't think so", she argued feeling partially threatened, "I think she's just trying to say that it takes work."  
  
"Well that's true", Tyler conceded, "but if it takes work then he really isn't perfect, is he?" "I don't believe anyone in this world is perfect for each other", he continued in a somber lecture, "your best bet is marrying a friend; or that's the way I see it."  
  
"That's not true", Relena declared, "I'm marrying Prince Charming, you'll see."  
  
Tyler had to restrain his urge to laugh or make any other display of superiority. Something about a thirteen-year-old in this day in age believing in such a childish fantasy like true love he found to be endlessly entertaining and in some ways, a boost to his own twisted ego. In truth, as much as Tyler was trying to keep his relationship with Relena as near professional as possible, he couldn't help but be infatuated with her and though he wished she wouldn't act so childish and foolish, another part of him found that he enjoyed being smarter then her, it made he feel like he actually had a chance. Lust truly is a selfish emotion.  
  
"And how will you know when you've found 'Prince Charming'?" he jabbed inquisitively, unable to completely hide a small edge of cynicism in his tone.  
  
Relena sat up straight, as if it would somehow strengthen her argument, "I'll just know it when I see him; it's destiny after all."  
  
'Fate is for those that are too lazy to mold their own futures', he silently retorted. He knew he had to change the subject fast, his beautiful pupil was sounding dumber and dumber the longer this conversation continued and he didn't want to ruin any chance he did have with her by losing control of his mouth; she actually was pretty nice, or so he thought. "We're getting off the subject", he reminded her, "my point is that when interpreting a poem for school, it's more important to give the answer that the instructor wants instead of what you actually think. And if your unsure of what the instructor wants, make sure you have plenty of evidence to support your views."  
  
About then, the young Relena Darlian let out a small girlish shriek as a bee began flying around in front of her. "A bee! Kill it!" she demanded in panic.  
  
"Don't worry about the bee, it'll go away and no I'm not killing it", Tyler calmly instructed in amusement.  
  
Relena jumped up out of her seat to try and get away from the bee, "Why not!"  
  
The bee, like Tyler had predicted, found nothing interesting in the area and just flew away on its own. "I'd rather deal with a bee then most humans I know, for one" Tyler muttered half audibly.  
  
Relena shot Tyler a questioning stare in confusion.  
  
Tyler continued his thought, "They're such noble insects; don't you think? All of them are such hard workers, putting the well being of the whole in front of their own; even the queen has her duties. If all of humankind could be a little more like bees then a lot of the worlds problems would be solved."  
  
"Bring!" the first bell for the morning rang, indicating that the first classes were starting soon.  
  
"We'll pick this up later, at lunch", Tyler suggested as he lifted up his books, "see you then."  
  
=====A FEW MORE DAYS LATER=====  
  
Exams were now over; it was the last day before vacation. Bruce was carrying Relena's books as she was walking toward her ride. Her mind however, wasn't on going home; it was on Tyler and the confused tangled web of feelings she had towards him. It was weird, these people around her, these people are suppose to be her friends; they aren't at the bottom of the social latter like Tyler is. But then, why had she grown so attached to Tyler in only a week's time; it wasn't love or anything like that but he always seemed so sincere in everything he did. He didn't treat her with the blind respect that her other friends did, she didn't know why she liked that. Perhaps all of the blind outward respect she got from everyone else actually distanced her from her friends. With them, she almost felt like she had to maintain a perfect social image, with Tyler, she felt more comfortable actually talking with him. Even if he criticized her there was something that seemed more real, more natural then the normal, "you're so great Ms. Relena, you can do no wrong" she normally got. Tyler was actually willing to really talk, sort of like her father, except Tyler actually had time to spare. Of course, she could never become real friends with Tyler, could she? It was a real mess; she was just glad that she'd have plenty of time to sort herself out.  
  
Just then a dreaded little voice interrupted her train of thought. "Hey, Relena!" Tyler shouted after her. Bad news, she was with Bruce and a couple of her other friends but he had to ask. "Um. I wanted to know if you wanted to do something for fun, later tonight. I'm going back home tomorrow so this would be the last time we see each other until school starts again."  
  
She had to think. It wasn't as simple as that, now that exams were over she really didn't have an excuse to hang around with him so if she answered yes, who knows what the others would think; that's why she had been avoiding him. But she didn't want to hurt his feelings either. 'This is so confusing', her mind raced, 'I can't make this decision now'. "Tyler, I.", she began, not quite sure what her next words were going to be. She didn't have to worry about it though.  
  
Bruce, put on his arrogant grin, "Don't you get it? Relena would never be with a freak like you. She was just using you to help her pass her exams!" "And they call you smart too", he pompously rubbed in.  
  
Bruce's words hit Tyler like a bowling ball shot from a cannon; his head began to spin in a frenzy of rage and pain. He didn't want to believe what he just heard but it all made sense. He looked at Relena, trying to find some sort of answer or hope that Bruce was lying but her head had sunken down and she was staring at the pavement. It was true, he knew it was, he just couldn't believe he had been so stupid and naïve; shame on him for having any kind of faith in humanity and giving into hope. A girl like that could never actually like someone like him. A girl like that could only live a shallow life. His only consolation was the knowledge that one day, when she married to some stuck up millionaire who regularly cheated on her, she might, for a second, regret what she did. "Your right.", he coldly answered, he wasn't, especially now, going to look hurt, not in front of him, not in front of anyone, especially her. He began walking away but stopped and turned his head around; he had one more thing to her, "Oh yes, Relena. I just wanted to tell you that I sincerely hope you one day find Prince Charming."  
  
Relena, lifted her head in surprise, puzzled by what he just said.  
  
"I do very much hope you find Prince Charming", he hissed, "so you can finally get it in your head that no one in this world is really like that." He paused for a moment and added, absolute contempt in his tone of voice, "And if there were someone like that in this world he wouldn't want to be with a self-centered little." he struggled with the next word but blurted it out after a moment, ".bitch like you!" He just continued to walk; he wouldn't cry, he'd never cry. He'd never give them that kind of satisfaction. It was his fault anyway, his fault for being so damn stupid.  
  
Bruce began moving towards Tyler like he was going to go beat Tyler up but was stopped short when Relena furiously grabbed her things.  
  
"You're such a jerk, Bruce", she snapped. Before walking away in the opposite direction.  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 11:56 PM ~*~*~  
  
"I really felt bad about what happened, it was my fault after all." The now matured twenty-two year old Relena took another sip from her wine glass and then continued her story, "I wanted to try and do the right thing and apologize to her when school started again but I couldn't find him." She made a deep sigh, "I later found out he had transferred to another private school. I never expected I'd ever meet him again, though. I'm glad he's doing well; he really is a genius."  
  
Heero just stared at her with his dark blue eyes. It's not as though this story really changed his opinion of her overall but it was certainly a shock. He just couldn't picture Relena being party to such a malicious scheme. "Is that it?" he finally asked.  
  
"Yeah, that's it", the somewhat depressed politician replied.  
  
For a while none of them said anything; they just sat there in the firelight in silence until the clock rang twelve.  
  
"I should probably go back to my apartment; we both need to get some rest", he stated as he began to get up from his seat. He found some resistance, however, and turned his head around to see that Relena had set her glass down on the table and was holding onto his hand. He looked at Relena's, desperate face questioningly.  
  
Between all the stress and pressure she had been under, the romantic firelight and the day of the year something snapped in Relena's mind. She felt so lonely as the president; the only person she felt she could really talk to on a regular basis was Heero, but he was so reclusive he never let her close to his heart. It happened all the time, he'd do something that peeked her hopes that he might actually want her romantically, like flirt with her a little, but then he'd just leave or something. Not tonight though, she was tired of always feeling lonely, she was tired of having her life dictated by her image and she was tired of always seeing other women her age happy with boyfriends, but not really having anyone herself. Cheryl was probably out having a great time with Alen, same with millions of other girls, why should her Valentines Day be any different? She loved Heero, she fell in love with him the moment she found him washed up on the beach those eight long years ago. Since then he's only allowed her to be friends with him, but she wished more then anything that Heero could love her the same way that she loved him. She wasn't about to have this be like all the other Valentines Days; she didn't want to spend another night alone; she would have Heero's affection that night; she would have it one way or the other.  
  
"You don't have to leave, Heero", she pleaded with puppy dog eyes. "You could stay here all night, with me", she suggested, "it could be like a slumber party, just the two of us?"  
  
'Is she asking me if. no. she couldn't, could she?' Heero thought. He wasn't quite sure what she was getting at, or at least, his mind hoped he wasn't sure; the rest of him was sure and was quite overjoyed about it too. "I guess I could crash on the.", Heero began to comment but was cut short. He found himself in two unusual situations. First, he found that Relena's lips were pressed tightly up against his own; second, Relena's body was on top of his. "Relena.", he gasped as there lips separated for a moment, "what are you." Heero was split in two; his mind told him he couldn't do this with her but the rest of him had been aching for it. "No. Relena. we.", he began to half heartedly protest in a pant.  
  
Relena wasn't letting up though. She even began to moan a little bit in satisfaction as she ran her hand through that untamable dark hair of his and then began to slowly undue his tie. All the while landing a unyielding barrage of kisses on his mouth. 'He wants this', she assured herself, 'all guys want this. It's just a matter of time before he caves.' She started removing the white jacket she wore, revealing the white dress shirt underneath, "just think of this as a holiday bonus", she offered before resuming her attack on his mouth.  
  
His right hand began to slowly roam down the curve of her hip while the other clung onto the back of her head and began releasing her black bow, freeing her long blond hair from the reserved ponytail that imprisoned it. 'No, bad hands!', he silently chided himself, 'If I don't stop this now I'll lose control. uh. this feels so good. She's so soft, so beautiful, uh. I want this, why can't I just let go? Why can't I just let myself have her?' His head was spinning in a sickening whirlpool of fear, doubt and bliss; he could barely think. 'On the count of three', his mind finally decided, '1. 2. 3.' Heero immediately focused all of the concentration he had left to his hands which he ordered to push his disrobing employer off of him. His hands responded, though still reluctantly, to the order like lightning.  
  
Relena was thrown to the other side of the couch but because a slight miscalculation on Heero's part she hit it harder then anticipated and gracelessly rolled off it and onto the floor; were she lay shocked in a jumbled heap. 'What is he doing?' she angrily thought to herself. She looked at Heero's face for an answer. He was gasping for breath and staring at her wide-eyed; she saw fear, Heero Yuy was afraid. She looked over the rest of him, and noticed how his tie was mostly undone; and that her white jacket lay crumpled up near his feat. 'What am I doing?', she asked herself as she realized the answer in horror, 'was I..? oh my god. oh my god.'  
  
Heero stared at Relena who was looking back at him in surprise from the floor. Something about the sight of her, all sprawled out like that, tangled up in her own hair turned him on even more. He knew he had to get out of there, now; "I should go", he weakly choked out as he shot up off the couch and began hastily redoing his tie.  
  
"No, Heero. don't go!" Relena pleaded as she tried scrambling to her knees, she didn't have time to get to her feet.  
  
Heero, still wide eyed, was still backing out of the room with haste; "goodnight Relena."  
  
"Heero, no, I'm sorry. Please, I."  
  
Heero slammed the door behind him as he retreated out of the room. 'Damn, how could I be so stupid?' he cursed at himself as he speedily walked through the hallways of the presidential manner, 'I hope nobody saw us.'  
  
Relena dragged herself to her gloomy bedroom, tears streaming down her face. She didn't even bother to change before throwing herself, haphazardly, onto her empty bed, she didn't care; she could have curled up and died and she wouldn't have cared. She had never felt more alone in her entire lifetime; she'd been rejected by one of the few people she had felt close to, the one man she could honestly say she loved. What was wrong with her, why did she have to do that? She knew that she basically ruined their friendship; she'd be lucky if Heero ever spoke to her again. 'What's wrong with me?', she cried, 'why doesn't he love me. Aren't I pretty enough? Aren't I smart enough? Why!' Relena just continued sobbing alone, in her dark room, her own tears drenched her long golden hair and face. Tyler's words spun around her mind in continuous replay; again and again like a broken record:  
  
"And if there were someone like that in this world he wouldn't want to be with a self-centered little bitch like you!"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
AN: Well, that's it for this chapter. Assuming all goes well, the third chapter should be up in about a week or two; maybe three at the most. And then you'll get to read what I know you've all been dyeing to. gratuitous violence! That's what it was, right...? (perverts) I guess there's a little more romance to but most of that is still a couple of chapters away. Please give a review. 


	3. The Mourning After

AN: Yeah, I know I promised violence in this chapter but you'll have to wait for the next. This chapter was originally just going to be part of the next but when I was trying to think of a name for the chapter I realized that the two parts really didn't go together very well. So I decided to separate them and expand on them a little. I'm terribly sorry to those of you who were counting on some blood. Also, the title of this chapter was meant to be a play on word. (morning, mourning, get it?)  
  
I had originally intended not to post this chapter until I have the next one ready but I figured that there is no point in making you wait that long. It could take a while since finals are coming up and I need to study, terribly sorry.  
  
The Beehive  
  
Chapter 3: The Mourning After ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Her hand slowly slid down his burly chest until it met the crease where his abdomen met the sheets. Her innocent cerulean eyes shimmered in the flickering candles light. A thick band of her honey blond hair hung over her shoulder, running down smooth flawless skin until finally resting on her breast. Her smile was warm enough to melt the polar ice caps.  
  
As enchanting as this was, Heero had no time for pillow talk; he had a job to do. His own navy blue eyes remained fixed on her aqua blue spheres as his hand slowly slid beneath his pillow; she had no idea what was coming next. He felt it, the cold metal handle met his fingers and he yanked the weapon out from underneath it's fluffy hiding place and Relena Darlian found herself, once again, looking down the barrel of a gun.  
  
The horror in her face was unforgettable as her eyes turned back to Heero's, looking for an answer; she found only the cold focused stare of an assassin.  
  
"Say goodbye, Relena", his deep, monotone voice whispered. Her body violently jerked for a moment as the bullet tore into her delicate throat. "Mission complete", he stated as he studied the crimson streams gushing out of the hole in her in her neck and placed a passionless kiss on the dead woman's forehead.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
DATE: February 15, 203 AC LOCATION: Heero's Apartment  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 4:28 AM ~*~*~  
  
Heero shot up into the darkness, wide-eyed in horror. 'What happened? Where is she?', he asked himself as he surveyed the unlit void that was his bedroom. A bead of sweat trickled off one of his dark bangs, down his forehead and rested on his eyebrow for a moment before he brought his quivering hand to wipe it off. He started to feel cold as the early morning air passed over his soaking bare chest.  
  
There was nothing unusual, just the same blank wall there always was; the bedroom door was open but he might have done that himself.  
  
Suddenly he realized it; he had to check. His head snapped down to the spot in the bead next to him; empty, just like every other time. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs and then expelling the abundant air slowly -half in relief, half in disappointment- and threw his upper body back down onto the mattress. The good news was, Relena wasn't there in a bloody heap; the bad news was, Relena wasn't there.  
  
When he landed, he found that his bed was drenched in sweat, 'That was one sick nightmare', he commented to himself. Heero Yuy had a lot of nightmares, mostly about things that happened in the war. Nightmares about hurting Relena, however were also common, and were his least favorite; this one happened to be one of his worst. He was glad that he hadn't spent the night with Relena; waking up from a nightmare like that with her around would have been awkward. Even without her around he still felt horrible, almost as horrible as he would have had he actually done it.  
  
"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" the alarm clock screeched as the neon red numbers shifted to read 4:30 AM.  
  
Heero turned over and slammed to snooze button in aggravation. 'A little late', he hissed as he picked himself up off of the cold sweat soaked white sheets of his bed and stretched. 'Damn it', he continued, 'I'll have to find some time to do laundry later.' He lazily threw on some shorts and a tank top for his 20-minute morning jog and laid out his suit for work on the unsaturated part of his bed for after he takes his shower. He'd have to be out the door by 5:15 at the latest.  
  
He left the bedroom entering the main area of the apartment. Heero's apartment wasn't anything special. It had two bedrooms, one of which Heero used for an office; a few closets; a bathroom and a kitchen, dining room, living room which were all connected. He didn't exactly live in the best neighborhood he could either; it was a lot better then the previous neighborhood though, and closer to the presidential residence. He would have been perfectly content to stay in the other one though, but Relena ordered him to move after he was mugged. He didn't understand why she ordered it, it was the other guy that had to be carted off in an ambulance but he obeyed nonetheless.  
  
Most people didn't understand why Heero lived like this. With the salary he got as the president's personal bodyguard he could afford a much more luxurious place then where he lived. Heero, however, just didn't see any sense in spending much money on an apartment he was rarely at anyway.  
  
He opened the refrigerator to grab a bite to eat. It was mostly empty, except for a few essentials. There was carton milk, expiration date unknown; a half used bottle of ketchup; some eggs; a bag containing a cheeseburger and fries from a fast food joint that he had stopped by for dinner two days ago, 'those should still be good', he thought; occasionally there was some cheese or some fruit, but not today; a bag of carrots and then, besides a few other insignificant items, the stack of nutrition bars Heero usually had for breakfast. They weren't incredibly tasty but they had all the essential vitamins and minerals and could be eaten quickly. Heero grabbed two and threw them on the counter with the bag of leftover fast food. He then walked over to the sink, snatched up one of the nearby plastic cups and filled it with water. On his way to the sink Heero noticed the stove; nothing in particular about it, he just noticed it. He almost laughed; he didn't even know why he had that thing, he rarely used it; it reminded him that he could heat up the leftover fast food with the microwave, however.  
  
He threw the detestably jolly white bag, specked with red and yellow designs, in the microwave, set it for a minute and hit power. While the microwave hummed its steady monotone symphony he took a bite out of one of the nutrition bars he had; it was cold. He leaned back against the counter; it was cold too. He took a look around his apartment; boxes of stuff that were still unpacked from the move sat in the corner, a TV sat on top of an unimpressive wooden table in front of an even less impressive pea green couch in the living room; his apartment had a pretty cold feeling too. Almost everything about Heero Yuy's life seemed cold, his childhood, the war, his present life and even his future, for that matter, seemed like it would also be cold; it's what he was both used to and, oddly enough, comfortable with. Just about the only thing in Heero's life that made him feel particularly warm was Relena; Relena, who showed him blind trust and kindness, even though they barely knew each other; Relena, the one target he couldn't seem to kill; Relena, who was the main reason peace existed in this world; Relena, who inspired him to live through the war; Relena, who offered him a job after the war; Relena who a heartless soldier like himself could only hurt; Relena, whom he had no right to even touch; Relena, the person he had to protect, even from himself.  
  
"BEEP, BEEP! BEEP, BEEP!" sounded the microwave, interrupting Heero's melancholy nostalgia.  
  
Heero moved to get his food from the microwave but was then again interrupted by another electronic sound, "BRING...! BRING...! BRING...!" It was from the vid-phone.  
  
Heero turned it on only to see a partially welcome smiling face staring back at him from the monitor. The face was rounder then his own, the eyes were also blue but a lighter shade and larger, it was topped off with long brown hair, like his own but also lighter, which though it wasn't immediately shown, Heero knew was being kept back in a ridiculously long braided ponytail. Yes, the face staring back at Heero was none other then his mismatched friend and ally, the former pilot of the Gundam Deathscythe, Duo Maxwell.  
  
"Hey, Heero buddy!" the almost ever gregarious Duo greeted.  
  
"Duo, do you know what time it is down here?", Heero asked in annoyance; he knew what he was calling about.  
  
Duo's perpetual smirk grew smugger, ever so slightly, as he confidently replied, "Well, I'd say about when you probably have to get up from what I here. You should probably look into getting more sleep; you seem moody." Of course, by that Duo meant more moody then usual. Heero always seemed to be moody when things weren't going according to plan, and Duo was also aware that he was the anti-plan as far as Heero was concerned. "So", Duo continued, "how'd it go?"  
  
Heero stayed silent.  
  
"That bad huh?" Duo shook his head, "You didn't get her something like a gun, did you?"  
  
"I got her a box of her favorite candy", Heero dryly replied. "As a friend", he hastily added, "Remember? I wanted to cheer her up, she was depressed."  
  
"Right, right", Duo waved his hand in a brush off expression, "That sounds safe enough for either case. What happened?"  
  
Heero didn't necessarily want Duo to know about it but after a moment's silence he decided to give in. "Were do I begin?" he finally started.  
  
After about five minutes of explaining, re-explaining, correcting Duo's wild interjections and Duo gawking at Heeo in disbelief and then asking him to explain it all over yet once again, Duo finally got a firm handle on what happened. "So let me know if I got this right", Duo confirmed, "So basically, you almost got laid over a box of candy and you declined? Damn..."  
  
Something about the way Duo said it annoyed Heero but he wasn't about to go through and correct him again; he had already spent enough time on this uncomfortable subject. "Close enough" Heero conceded in exasperation.  
  
"I don't know weather to call you noble or stupid", Duo admitted.  
  
"Duo..." Heero sneered as he shot Duo one of his intermediately intimidating death glares, "I have no intention of putting Relena and myself and in the same position as you and Hilde."  
  
"Now that's not fair", Duo argued, "that was planned, sort of. But right, right... I gotchya buddy, good friend, bad lover. But, I can't help but think she wants you for the latter more."  
  
"You think I don't know that!", Heero snapped, more frustrated with himself then anything.  
  
Duo paused for a moment with a cockeyed expression to give Heero a chance to think, he then asked, "Do you love her?"  
  
"I...", Heero started, "I don't know", he finally admitted.  
  
"Well you better figure that out soon buddy boy, cause she ain't going to just sit and wait for you answer forever. This isn't something you can just keep putting off Heero, it might even be to late now."  
  
Heero couldn't help but grimace a bit at that last part.  
  
Duo continued, "Now, I'm not you and you know that girl a hell of a lot better then I do so I don't know how you really feel about her; I will say this though: As devoted as you are to work I just figured she'd been railing you the whole time." Duo smugly snickered.  
  
Heero slammed his fist down against the counter in anger. "Don't ever say something like that again Maxwell", he hissed, "You don't know what those damn reporters are capable of; you've never seen how upset she gets when that kind of stuff gets spread around. It's not funny."  
  
'Well, your certainly protective enough', Duo silently murmured, "Fine, fine but I had to say it. Now it's your turn; do you love her?"  
  
"I...", Heero trailed off.  
  
"Come on!" Duo goaded, "Just say the damn words Heero. What's keeping you?"  
  
Heero's indigo blue eyes wondered off to the side as he thought about it for several more seconds. "Let's pretend I did for a moment...", Heero replied in hesitation, "What do I do about it?"  
  
"WHAT DO YOU DO ABOUT IT!?", Duo gawked, his face had the most wide eyed expression of shock not associated with life threatening danger the former pilot of Wing Zero had ever seen, "What do you think your supposed to do about it!?"  
  
Silence accompanied by a stern "don't toy with me" look, was Heero's answer for a while until he finally broke the silence. "I really don't have time for this", Heero plainly stated.  
  
Duo made a deep sigh, closing his eyes in disappointment, "Well... just do something she wouldn't expect, Okay." After realizing that Heero was serious about cutting off the conversation he went on, "at least think about what I said, Heero. See you later", he reluctantly bid, frustrated with Heero's stubbornness.  
  
"Bye", Heero replied nodding his head before his hand clicked the off switch.  
  
What was keeping him from saying the words, anyway? Heero wasn't quite sure himself. Now that Relena was planning on leaving politics he really didn't have an excuse to hold back. All that was left was this bizarre feeling of fear. It wasn't the type of fear that he got when his life was in danger; he could definitely handle that. It wasn't really a fear of rejection either. It was definitely a type of fear though; something in his mind was arguing against the idea of him admitting his feelings and he wasn't sure what. Whatever it was, though, it was finally clear to Heero that it wasn't something that was rational.  
  
'Something she wouldn't expect, huh?', he repeated to himself as he looked up at the clock. 'Four forty-five? Damn, not enough time for a jog. Looks like I'm getting to work early again, if I still have a job that is.'  
  
LOCATION: The Presidential Residence of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 7:11 AM ~*~*~  
  
Light began to creep through the window of the presidential bedchamber. The stream of photons emitted by the sun steadily slid up the navy blue blankets, crested with the ESUN symbol in a bright goldish yellow. On top of those blankets a very ragged looking President Darlian begrudgingly opened her stinging, blood shot, aqua blue eyes.  
  
'I didn't drink that much, did I?' she asked herself in grief. She slowly began hoisting herself up off of the bed, her long blond hair dangled down all over reddened overheating face in countless unruly tangles. 'It must have been more then I thought. I thought I was older then that', she resentfully continued.  
  
Her mouth was a bag of cotton balls; she needed water. Relena hobbled her way to the bathroom, nearly collapsed on the countertop, turned on the cool water and threw her head in the sink to try and lap some up liquid. After drinking her fill she checked herself out in the mirror; she didn't want to but she did anyway. Her eyes were red, not surprisingly considering how all of the tears she shed; there were dark circles underneath them; all the makeup she had neglected to remove before crying herself to sleep had been smeared in the most unattractive ways all about her normally pretty face; the white dress shirt and pants she had also neglected to remove were all crumpled up and wrinkled, it wasn't a big problem but it didn't look good; and hanging over it all, was her long golden hair, which was in a cluttered mess of chaotic tangles and split ends, the strands that had rested in the sink during her drink were dripping wet.  
  
'I look like a whore', she muttered to herself after about a minute of gazing at the depressing sight in the mirror. 'Maybe that's just what I am', she continued as she slowly dragged herself back to her bed and collapsed. "Ugh... what was I thinking?" she whined, she would have cried had she still had the fluid for tears, "I completely let my hormones get the better of me, errg..." She clenched onto the bedcovers in a fist in frustration. She rolled back onto her back and lay there for a minute or so, gazing into the blankness of the navy blue drapes, laced with a gold fringe, that hung over and around the Victorian style windows of her bedchamber as she pondered the events of the previous night. 'I wonder if he's even coming in today', she thought.  
  
She turned to the vid-phone on her left, punched in a few numbers and at the last minute turned off the vid functions, realizing that she didn't want anyone seeing her like this.  
  
"Hello, president's office", chimed in the sweet peppy voice of Cheryl after a couple of deep dragging dial tones.  
  
"Hello Cheryl", Relena replied using every ounce of will power and voice control she had to not sound like she was dying a slow and torturous death. "Hey... um... did Heero come in today?" she finally inquired; she couldn't help but suspect that a tinge of her anxiety was seeping into her forcibly nonchalant tone.  
  
"Yeah, he's mostly been staying in his office but he's here", Cheryl hesitated, something wasn't right; the president didn't normally turn off the vid-function. "Is everything all right?" she finally mustered up the nerve to ask.  
  
Relena panicked for a moment but quickly regained her composure. "Oh, yeah, sure, I was just wondering", the ruffled young politician reacted; it was lame but it would have to do. Relena couldn't help but let a small sigh slip. "I'm feeling kind of sick today so I might be in late", she stated, hoping the phone didn't pick up her sigh.  
  
"Really?" Cheryl asked; she was sure Ms. Darlian was covering something up but decided it was in her best interests to play dumb; she trusted Relena but in her experiences as a secretary she found that it was safer not letting her employer know she knew they were lying. "Well, I hope you feel better soon", she continued.  
  
"Thanks Cheryl, I'll see you later today", Relena gratefully bid farewell before clicking the phone off and rolling back over on her back. "Heero..." she longingly called out. What had she been thinking last night? Did she really think she could win Heero's heart in bed? 'Even if he did sleep with me it wouldn't have been like I had always dreamed', she chastised herself, 'it's not like he'd just open up; it would have just made things worse. You're so dumb, Relena.' She had to cut herself off; the thought was just too depressing. As much as she didn't want to admit it, as much as she'd been clinging onto her delusional hopes and fantasies, she realized that she had to face facts; Heero just wanted to be her friend and nothing more; maybe not even that after how she acted the previous night. 'I practically tried to rape him'; she lamented. She knew what she had to do, she had to apologies to him; hopefully he'd forgive her and they could salvage their friendship. Not now though, she couldn't even bare the thought of facing him now. 'Oh... Relena, what's the matter with you?' she scolded herself in sorrow. 


	4. Hostile Takeover

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters associated with it. This is simply a nonprofit fanfiction that I'm writing for fun; no harm in it, right? However, Tyler and the other characters that aren't part of the Gundam Wing universe are mine and personally, I feel that if you were to steal them your kind of lame; even more so then myself.  
  
AN: Well, it's finally here, the elusive Ch4; I knew I rated this thing R for something. First, there is some graphic descriptions of violence and second, the conversation between Mr. Darter and Mr. Almond is a little raw, to say the least. Anyway, please enjoy.  
  
The Beehive  
  
Chapter 4: Hostile Takeover  
  
DATE: February 16, 203 AC LOCATION: Remote Desert Lab, The Beehive  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 8:44 AM ~*~*~  
  
His head was shaved, he was dressed in a flimsy patient gown, his brown eyes studied the blank waiting room. The walls were mostly bricks and metal painted white and completely flat all around the room, save a closet in the corner, rather uncomfortable actually. The floor was smooth concrete, the only thing on it were a few hospital beds on wheels; one of which he was sitting on. The tension in his heart grew as the minutes ticked by to the time of the surgery. This wasn't like normal surgeries however. First, this surgery wasn't being performed in a normal hospital, it was being performed in an underground research facility. Second, this surgery wasn't for the purpose of maintaining his body; it was for enhancing it. More specifically, his flesh was to be merged with cybernetic implants, and in so doing he was to become the ultimate soldier. Lastly, this surgery wasn't going to be performed through the normal methods, it was to be done through the Beehive; thousands of nano-bots were to be infused into his body to help build, place, monitor, and maintain the implants; in a sense he was to become one with the Beehive itself.  
  
When the door opened, the man did not expect to be staring back at himself; he tensed up ready for anything but then slowly realized that it was just one of the head scientists behind the Beehive, Dr. Marcus. It was amazing how similar he and Dr. Marcus looked, especially since Dr. Marcus had, for some unknown reason, decided to shave his hair off, just like him.  
  
"You scared me doctor", the man sighed in relief, "are you ready for me yet."  
  
Dr. Marcus said nothing, he just stared at him with blank brown eyes and began advancing toward him. A small, unsettling smile rested on top of his chin.  
  
"Is everything all right, doctor?" the man asked, anxiety building toward the young scientist's advancement.  
  
Tyler still said nothing as he finally approached the nervous soldier to be and jabbed a small, hand held device into his shoulder.  
  
The man winced in pain; he could feel some kind of a fluid being pumped into his veins but he had no time to react. Things were getting fuzzy, it all just seemed unimportant now, the Beehive, the revolution; it all came second to resting his eyes for a moment.  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 10:59 AM ~*~*~  
  
"Incredible little devices", Dr. Jonathan smugly commented as he looked down upon the man, or more precisely, cyborg who lay before him and the surgeons.  
  
He did not yet appear to be active, but the monitors all showed that he was in excellent condition; it was likely that his system wasn't done rebuilding and merging with the newly installed implants. Despite this delay, it was still incredible. A surgery that would otherwise have taken at least a month to safely complete had been done in less then two hours with the help of the Beehive. And even then the subject's biology would reject the implants and upgrades without the bees, which were now flowing through the patient's blood, to suppress and replace the immune system.  
  
The subject was no longer just human, he was more then human. He was a perfect union of flesh and machine, an ideal fighter with superhuman strength, powerful weapons, rapid regeneration capabilities and immune to almost all types of diseases. He was the first in what was to be a long line of soldiers. Accompanied by other war machines (made by bathing raw materials in a pool of bees and having the Beehive rearrange them) that were being manufactured and kept in the same underground facility, these soldiers would overthrow the ESUN, making those involved with The Beehive Project the new leaders of the world.  
  
His arms and legs were integrated with black, metal pods containing a new weapon, designed by Tyler Marcus himself; thin gundanium tentacles, tipped with pinchers; they were strong, dexterous, lightning fast, versatile and deadly. Tyler had said that he was inspired by Gundam 05 and the Epyon; he also insisted that they were put into wide use for all weapons built and controlled by the Beehive. His muscles were being rebuilt, expanded and supported to increase his physical strength. Pods were placed throughout his entire body, containing excess proteins and minerals that could be used by the bees to repair battle damages as well as a system of artificial veins and vessels that also stretched throughout his entire body to deliver them to needed areas. They looked bluish black underneath the pallid skin under which they lay. The sickeningly pale skin pulsated slightly in some spots were bees were still doing work. If his eyes were open it would reveal that his irises were now a grayish color, an effect of the optical implants. His chest and back were armored and contained hundreds of additional tools, computing equipment, even more tentacles weapons and the most important feature of all; a set of wires which came out of the back portion and connected with the back of the subject's skull, which was now grafted with metal for protection. These wires fed directly into the subject's brain and were what made it possible for all these additional systems to be controlled by the subject and work in coordination with the subject's body.  
  
Another feature was also added, which the subject wasn't supposed to know about. All of the people chosen to undergo this surgery were selected by small radical minority groups, many of which religious extremists, which were under the impression that the Darter Corporation was supporting their ideals. Obviously, in most, if not all cases it was a lie and thus a system to control the soldiers was needed. This is the main purpose for Dr. Marcus; he designed a system which would make it possible to not only connect a person's brain to a computer but control their mind, not much unlike a mobile doll. Thus, Mr. Darter and his supporters would have a small army of perfect soldiers at their command. On top of that another fail safe system was added, which could deactivate the Beehive and all the bees with it, if there were an emergency.  
  
"So, Dr. Marcus asked not to be disturbed, even for this?", Dr. Jonathan asked in astonishment.  
  
The surgeon he was talking to shrugged, turned away from the screen presenting the subject's vital signs, towards Dr. Jonathan and replied, "He said he was too tired to make an appearance after making all of the last minute modifications last night."  
  
Dr. Jonathan contemptibly snorted a bit, "He was up late last night but still, I can't believe he'd miss this. This is the fruit of our labor." He gestured toward the new perfect soldier.  
  
About seven more minutes passed, Dr. Jonathan and the three surgeons just continued monitoring their creation. They all wore turquoise blue surgical aprons, hair nets, masks, and latex gloves; just like normal surgeons would. Of course, most of this equipment was unnecessary; they only had to insert the implants in the general locations they were needed, the bees did all of the precise connections and modifications for them; of course they had to make incisions but the bees also would destroy any unwanted bacteria or viruses which found their way into the subject's system so it wasn't an incredibly big deal whether the surgical environment was kept sterile or not.  
  
Watching the doctors, behind a sheet of thick bullet proof glass was a very board technicians, who monitored the equipment an implants. He lazily leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed, half in dream world. His wrinkled, tan technician uniform swayed in constant as his head bobbed up in down with sleep. The dim lights in the room he sat in made a small chocolate band across his clean cut black hair.  
  
Suddenly, one of the monitors beeped waking the technician up from his nap. He surveyed the green glyphs climbing up the black screen and pressed the intercom button. "Dr. Jonathan", he called, "almost all of the implants have activated, he should be waking up soon".  
  
"Thank you Simon", Dr. Jonathan responded. He then added, "Would you please get Dr. Marcus. I don't care what he says, this stage is critical and we may need him."  
  
"Yes sir", the technician replied as he began to dial the number to Tyler's quarters.  
  
Dr. Jonathan heard the scream of the other surgeons behind him and turned around in surprise to see that the test subject was sitting up and had the other three surgeons restrained with his tentacle weapons. There was a fire in his cold, cybernetic, once brown eyes, three of the tentacle weapons were extended from his back and were wrapped around the three surgeons, who violently thrashed as they were hoisted into the air. The subject brought himself to his feet, almost in awe of how easily he could stand despite the fact he was holding three grown men in the air. He opened his mouth to speak, but it wasn't the voice of the intended test subject, it was the voice of Dr. Tyler Marcus. "Oh, I don't think that will be necessary", stated the now mechanized Tyler, in a voice of almost pure self confidence and cynicism.  
  
"D... Dr.... Marcus..? but..?", Dr. Jonathan stuttered as his aged mind tried to comprehend what was happening.  
  
"How am I here? It's all part of being perfect.", he mocked. "I'm afraid I had to remove the mind control device though. There just wasn't any room for it after I added this little feature." His head gestured to the door leading out of the surgery areas as a left arm tentacle shot out of its pod and constricted Dr. Jonathan. All of the monitors in the room went blank for a moment and then displayed the words "Those that seek power only for their personal pleasure make their lives forfeit. I shall now exact judgment, for I am the master of the Beehive" in a constant loop.  
  
A man with a semi-automatic burst through the door in a panic, "The Beehive! The machines! The Weapons!" He gasped, "they're all out of...", he stopped himself as he noticed what was going on and raised his weapon to fire; he dropped it though, in a grimace of pain as one of Tyler's back tentacles shot through his lower leg with the bloody snap of his bones.  
  
All the lights in the entire underground facility went out. Except for the cold glow of the monitors, a human couldn't see. Tyler had no problem though, since the optical implants allowed him to see far more of the electromagnetic spectrum then what is normally considered visible light. He had no problem seeing that the technician was making his way to the red button that would deactivate the entire beehive.  
  
The intercom in the room cut into the technician's advance; "Oh come now", Tyler chided indulgently, "do you really think that I would leave that system active?"  
  
The technician hesitated for a moment but that was all that Tyler needed. One of his right arm tentacles punched through the bullet proof glass like a pencil through tissue paper and into his right shoulder, pinning him to the wall. As Simon watched his own blood trickle down to the concrete floor, in a state of shock the communicator clicked back on; Tyler had one more thing to say, "By the way, I bluffed. There's no way I could have removed that without at least one of you numskulls noticing. Had you pressed it I would have died right here." Two other tentacles sliced through the wall and into the machines tearing them up; the Beehive could no longer be deactivated from that terminal. The tentacle that had him pinned released him and he fell to the floor. Normally he would have cursed himself for his incompetence but he just couldn't find it in himself to care. His shoulder and right collar bone were shattered and he was too dizzy from the loss of blood and pain, so he just let himself slip into unconsciousness, soaking in his own crimson pool.  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 12:32 PM ~*~*~  
  
The two men, Mr. Darter and Mr. Almond, smirked as the cute little brunette secretary with the tight red skirt left Mr. Darter's smoky office and closed the hard wooden door.  
  
"That is a fine piece of ass", commented Mr. Almond, almost in admiration of Mr. Darter's choice in secretaries.  
  
"You're telling me.", Mr. Darter smugly replied, his cigar bobbing like a ship at sea as his mouth sounded the words.  
  
Mr. Almond took a cigarette and lighter out of his pocket, stuck the white cylinder in his mouth and lit the end orange.  
  
"Normally I try to refrain from smoking in the office", stated Darter, "but this is a special occasion."  
  
"Still better then the presidential residence", Mr. Almond interjected, contempt edged his voice, "that bitch of a president only allotted one room in the whole building were you can smoke; and it isn't even as big as this office. I'll tell ya", he continued, his frustration with President Darlian's policies was obvious simply by his tone; he was certainly pissed off, "it's beyond me how a little girl like that got so far in the game; it's a total fluke. I mean, we can't even fucking swear with her in a room."  
  
"Eh...", Mr. Darter brushed off, "there's no way she's that 'Miss Perfect'. Every politician has indiscretions."  
  
"Well, I think she's fucking the gundam pilot", Mr. Almond casually shot back, "but that's about it."  
  
"See... she pretends to be so innocent in public but whores off when no one's looking; it's a common tale among young women", Darter calmly made his point. "Anyway, it's no matter; if all goes well the world will be ours by the end of the week."  
  
"heh...", Almond snorted, "I can't wait to see her face when she figures it out; 'It was me bitch!'".  
  
"Speaking of that", Mr. Darter cut in, "the surgeons should be about done."  
  
Mr. Almond gave Mr. Darter a puzzled look; "wouldn't they contact us?", he asked.  
  
"No", Mr. Darter replied, "we kept the underground facilities almost completely cut off from the rest of the building, for obvious reasons. Most of the employees don't even know they exist and most of the ones that do think its just storage space and don't have a clue how big they actually are."  
  
"I see", answered Mr. Almond, "I'm sorry I lit up." Mr. Almond buried his cigarette in a nearby ash tray and stood up.  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 12: 40 PM ~*~*~  
  
The secret elevator doors opened into a long dark hallway. The clinking of metal, the hiss of welding, and numerous other mechanical noises echoed through the hall from the inky black distance.  
  
Something was wrong and Mr. Darter knew it; perhaps they had a problem with the lights. He stepped out of the elevator and called out, "Hey, what's going on down here". His voice rang through the halls, only answered by the constant background noise he heard as he stepped off the elevator.  
  
The two schemers weren't left to ponder long however; two metallic tentacles burst through the dark showed and coiled the two men. They were carried through the intricate hallways at a rocket's speed, the wind stung their faces as they were unwillingly navigated into the huge hanger area. The lights were still dim but were better then the hallways so the two men could clearly see the enormous underground chamber. All the mobile suits an machinery were up and running, most were constructing things and making modifications to the room. Most noticeably, the same type of segmented metallic tentacles were now being installed on the walls, in fact, the tentacles that had captured them had been grafted to the walls near the door they had just been dragged out of, and a jungle's network of these vines extended all throughout the hanger. It was also possible to see that the chamber was being expanded as well, mobile suits and tentacles were cautiously chipping away and burrowing into bedrock while adding supports to ensure the expanding chambers stability. Though the line of sight was heavily disrupted by the thickening layers of vineish mechanical hands the Beehive, a massive super computer system which controlled the actions of the specially designed nano-bots with precision stood proud amidst the domain it was helping to create, in all its splendor. Something else beside it was also visible, it looked like the base of another Beehive.  
  
"Why hello", the taunting voice of Tyler Marcus echoed through the chamber as his highly altered body was lowered down to their level, "I was wondering when you'd finally come down here; I was becoming impatient."  
  
"Dr. Marcus!", Mr. Darter gasped in desperation, still flailing in a futile effort to break free of the coil around his waste, "what the fuck is going on!"  
  
"My, my, such language", Tyler taunted disdainfully, "I'm afraid I don't have time to explain though. As you can see", Tyler's left hand gestured to everything in the immense room, "I'm so very busy right now. But let's see." The two tentacles which wrapped around Mr. Darter and Mr. Almond hoisted the two men up a bit so that Tyler had a better look at them. The two men shivered fearfully, neither sure what to expect. Tyler's, now metallic brown eyes darted right and left, examining the two specimens before him, piercing through their wretched flesh in an effort to determine their worth to his cause. "Let's see", he outwardly thought, "mind slaves or test subjects?". He continued studying the two men for a moment; long enough for Mr. Darter to realize that Tyler wasn't equipped with just the standard implants; additions were being added even now. Many more tentacle devices had been added, and the devices on his back were piling up, he looked like a cross between a turtle and a jellyfish. Most of his biological form was concealed but what was visible was very muscular, Tyler looked like a body builder, an unnaturally pale body builder. It's not as though he particularly needed the muscles though, he was being lifted and transported by the network of segmented metal vines that were strung all throughout the facility as well as the ones grafted to his body. Tyler winced a bit as a yellow wire from one of the newly added devices popped into the back of his neck and began worming upwards towards the connection point, but he quickly maintained his conceited composure.  
  
"Well, you seem to have brains that could be of use to me...", Tyler finally broke the horrid semi-silence, "...mind slaves", he commented. Immediately, the vines coiled around the two men responded by dragging them back down the hall they came, and into darkness; their screams bouncing down the halls to heartless ears. Neither man knew what he meant by "mind slave" but it couldn't be good.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
AN: I suppose you can generally guess what's coming next. I hope I was descriptive enough so that you can clearly picture the cyborg, Tyler and his new domain in your heads; it's such a hideous scene indeed. Hopefully, the next chapter will be up in about a week; maybe less since school is finally out. Please do not hesitate to submit a review. 


	5. The Abduction

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters or devices of the Gundam Wing Universe. I am not making money off of this, it is completely for my own musings. Standard Disclaimer.  
  
AN: I'm sorry that this chapter took me longer then I initially predicted. Some of the delays were due to some geographical research concerning the location of Brussels (turned out to be Belgium) and learning every thing I could easily learn about the area, there was also several points were I wasn't sure where to take it necessarily and finally, there was some degree of lack of effort. I hope you enjoy it and just to serve as a warning, there is a limeish part.  
  
The Beehive  
  
Chapter 5: The Abduction  
  
DATE: February 17, 203 AC LOCATION: The Presidential Residence of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation  
  
~*~*~TIME: 7:12 AM (Maine Time: 2:12 AM)~*~*~  
  
He was surprised that she wasn't up yet. So he navigated his way through the living quarters until he found his way to the door of the President's bedchamber. He was about knock on the door, but he noticed that it wasn't completely shut; then an idea crossed his mind. He turned his head left and right; no one else would see him, good. He opened the door just a little bit more and took a peek inside; the room was still, decorated with beautiful painstaking carvings in the white painted wood walls. A set of porcelain jars and containers, filled with who knows what, sat idly atop a hard wood dresser, topped with an old fashioned round mirror; across from that, on the bed, under those navy blue blankets peacefully slept a small, caramel blond, angelic, European girl, who just happened to hold the highest office in the whole Earth Sphere, clad in a white night gown.  
  
'Good', he thought.  
  
Heero silently slipped into the room and closed the door behind him, he then took another long look at the sleeping beauty before him. She lay still, on her back, save for the rhythmic heaving of her chest. She stirred a bit, sliding her right arm up the bed over her head and turned her head to greet it. Heero, also being to the right of the resting president, took a step back in surprise, his heart inactive, while his mind calculated as many possible explanations as to why he was there as he could; and realized she was still asleep. She murmured something but he couldn't tell what. Heero Yuy then recollected himself, took in a big breath of air and then pushed himself forwards to carry out his spur of the moment mission.  
  
Ever since the incident on Valentines Day night, Relena and Heero had barely spoken to each other. Relena was usually the one to initiate non- business conversations but for the past two days she had gone out of her way to avoid him and the few exchanges they did have usually went something along the lines of:  
  
Heero hands Relena his latest report; Relena thanks him and smiles weakly. Heero stays for a few seconds, expecting her to say something else while she just shrinks back into her chair, like she was afraid of him. Heero decides that she isn't in a mood to talk and leaves.  
  
To tell the truth, they had never worked with each other this efficiently, ever, which in some ways was a good thing considering the fact he had such an important investigation on his hands; but it was disturbingly unnatural and he actually had intended to take Duo's advice, eventually. He had two problems though. His first problem was the fact that he could only barely choke out the words "I love you" to a mirror, let alone say it to her face, but in his mind that was of little consequence. His second problem was method, what could he do that would surprise Relena, make up for the other night, and get his point across without saying those three damned words. It had puzzled him until yesterday afternoon when he overheard some soap opera one of the office security team members happened to have on in the lunch room. An idea had suddenly struck him and, in accordance, he rushed out to buy everything he needed later that afternoon. This presented a new problem though, it would be awkward to just do what he was planning on doing out of nowhere, he had to lead up to it somehow; he was no expert on relationships but he'd watched enough TV to generally figure that part out. So, he realized this morning as he drove to work, with much dissatisfaction, that he was back to square one after all. Upon seeing his unofficial master was still asleep, he was reminded of an old fairy tale he once heard. This born assassin had normally never been in to fairy tales, even when he was small, but this one, or at least this part of this one, he did happen to remember and realized that it would be the perfect way to start off. And, even if he was wrong, its not like she would fire him, not after the other night's fiasco. So, cautiously, he tip toed up to the bed and looked down upon his spinning wheel pricked princess. Her brownish blond hair hung over her left shoulder in a pony tail, her lips seemed to stare at him, as if to invite him in. There was something mournful about her expression though, leading Heero to wonder exactly what she was dreaming about.  
  
'This will do it', he thought as he tried to force his back into leaning his mouth into her soft face, 'it's right out of a fairy tale, it couldn't possibly not work.' His body wasn't responding however; he could do nothing but hover above her watching her sleep.  
  
Heero then noticed something he had been too distracted to notice before, something, not entirely, but still at the same time awful. As the reality of the situation began to crawl up his spine, from the pit of his stomach he took a half step back, then forwards, and then knelt down in front of Relena's bed in concern, it was the only thing he could think of to do. Heero had noticed that on top of the nearby ornate night stand, underneath the umbrella of the fancy, gold fringed, lamp, ominously stood a small half depleted bottle of sleeping pills.  
  
He held the suspicious bottle in his hand and browsed the back, 'one pill dosage... you may want to consult a doctor before use... extended use may lead to serious medical issues... contact a doctor immediately if you have any problems... do not drink alcohol while using this product...', his cobalt eyes froze on that ultra fine print, it just jumped out at him, 'why?' It then occurred to him that Relena had been drinking a glass of some kind of liquor before he left yesterday. He didn't really pay any attention though since he was focused on his plan; all he did was stop by to inform her that he had to leave early.  
  
While he was reading the bottle Relena mumbled something in her sleep - something about someone not leaving; he hadn't caught most of it though.  
  
'She's definitely still breathing all right', he confirmed; a sigh of relief rushed over him. He stood back up and looked down at her, not quite sure what to do. His resolve to find out about the pills had just overshadowed his romantic notions - which unsurprisingly were few and far between - and delicately shook her shoulders a bit while he quietly called out her name, "Relena... wake up."  
  
He wasn't expecting what happened next, one second his head was still a comfortable distance above the bed pondering what to say, the next, her arms held it tightly to hers as she hungrily indulged her mouth.  
  
All that time that Heero had been in the room, Relena had been dreaming a not entirely, but at the same time unpleasant dream about him. As her eyes dreamily half opened to meet Heero's golf balls staring back at her, her conscious mind once again began to function. She examined the current situation, 'I was kissing him goodbye... I'm in my bed... his eyes are the size of hockey pucks... Wait, this doesn't make sense. He was about to leave on some mission and... no, the war is over... I'm in my bed, did we have sex..? no, I would have remembered that - I hope...', and soon, as the answer to all her questions hit her like a slab of free falling shale; a sinking sensation developed in Relena's stomach, followed soon after by blind panic. "Oh my god! Not again!", she shouted, forcefully shoving Heero away in horror.  
  
Heero stumbled back a pace but caught himself before he lost balance, "...Relena?", he finally spit out.  
  
She was sitting up in her bed diverting her eyes for Heero's gaze and nervously fidgeting with her brownish blond pony tale over her shoulder. Tears were welling up in her eyes, she was so angry at herself. She had grown acutely afraid that if Heero knew exactly how she felt he'd be scared off; it wasn't like he showed any clear romantic interest in her, after all. In fact, the only thing she knew about how Heero felt towards her was that she could trust him with almost anything and he trusted her, or at least, had trusted her; before she managed to royally betray that trust twice within a three day period; she had realized that trying to force herself on him was probably a dumb move. "Heero... I, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry I, I... didn't... I didn't...", as her mind raced to find some magical words that would make it all better, something else occurred to her. "Why are you in my room?", she looked back up at him as she interrupted herself matte-of-factly.  
  
Heero's stern bodyguard face came up and he held the newly discovered bottle up so Relena could see it.  
  
"Insomnia", the surprised and embarrassed young president responded defensively.  
  
The blue eyed Japanese man narrowed his eyes some; "Your not supposed to drink while using these", he critically commented in monotone.  
  
"I know that", she shot back, a little annoyed by Heero's inquisition, "I wasn't"  
  
"I caught you drinking before I left yesterday Relena. Actually, you've been drinking a lot lately", he spoke with a tone that couldn't help but imply suspicion.  
  
Relena shook her head, "That was a long time before I went to bed, Heero", she sat up some more and glared at Heero with her cerulean eyes, "And I'm not having an alcohol problem, I just need a little drink every now and then to help calm down; I've been under a lot of stress lately, that's all."  
  
"And what happened on the tenth?", Heero's face kept like a rock.  
  
Relena's face reddened as she recalled waking up the eleventh with a vengeful hangover and a couple of aspirins, a cup of water and a note from Heero saying "You'll probably need this when you wake up" on her night stand.  
  
Heero recalled having to stealthily navigate a incessantly giggling, ranting, stumbling and slurring strawberry blond politician to her room so as few people as possible realized that the president of the ESUN was hammered; listening to amazingly stupid comments like, "We need some waffles" and "You know what I like about you Heero? Tee... he... he... You have a cute butt" and then having to ignore all of her drunken efforts to seduce him. After he finally unplugged the phone in her room (just in case), got away and locked the door behind him he stood guard for fifteen minutes and peeked back in to find her sleeping on the floor ON TOP of her cloths. His first impulse was to just get the hell out of there but after a minute of arguing with himself he decided that he couldn't just leave her like that. So he carefully found a nightgown for her, slipped it on her as best he could and tucked her in bed, using every ounce of his willpower to not take advantage of her compromising state. He then left her some aspirin and a note, rushed back to his apartment and took a really cold shower. He decided to spare Relena the uncomfortable details when she woke up the following morning. "You were completely drunk", his heartless voice continued in aggravation, "you didn't even remember what happened, and you probably don't want to."  
  
"That only happened once!", she heatedly protested  
  
Heero wasn't done though, he didn't particularly want to say this, not to her, especially not to her; he didn't even want to admit it, had anyone else said it while he was around he would have beaten them to the emergency room, but it had to be said, "Relena, I think you might be becoming an alcoholic."  
  
"Why am I taking this from you anyway!? It's none of your business! Get out!", she screeched as she furiously pointed to the door.  
  
For a few moments, the two of them stayed silent and still, just scowling at each other. A diminutive amount of regret crept up on the scarlet faced Relena but she was still too embarrassed and frustrated for it to take hold.  
  
Heero took in a gulp of air in a failed effort to suppress some nameless mix of emotions Relena's words stirred in his abdomen; "You're scheduled to leave at 8:30 AM", he bluntly stated before turning around and marching out the door.  
  
LOCATION: Preventer Aircraft, Maine.  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 3:30 AM (Belgium Time: 8:30 AM) ~*~*~  
  
"Negative, you wouldn't make it in time. Just intercept your current target and try to bring as much of it back as you can.", replied the voice of Lady Une over the intercom.  
  
Sally navigated through the menus on the monitor, until finally finalizing her choice with the feathery decent of her callous index finger. The data they were just sent opened up on the screen; a small page of glyphs and satellite photos. "Roger", replied the blond Asian as her squinty blue eyes focused on the skimpy data table she just received.  
  
"Good luck", bid the Preventer's commander and the communication channel closed with an almost inaudible click.  
  
Sally turned to her 23-year-old partner, Preventer Ace, former Gundam Pilot and the last remnants of the once proud Long Clan, Chang WuFei. "You hear that, WuFei?", she asked.  
  
WuFei turned his dark Asian eyes from the systems check for the aircraft to the monitor displaying the target information, he didn't want to go into a battle with a dysfunctional machine but he wanted to know what he was up against too. "I heard it", he grunted, his focus clearly on the mechanical operations.  
  
"Have you ever seen a mobile suit like that?", she questioned, turning her focus to another small screen, "one-hundred-eighty seconds until we reach the target", she stated.  
  
"Not a clue what it is", WuFei admitted, "It's hard to even call it a mobile suit, more like a mobile monkey".  
  
The photos were fuzzy but the target looked green, and had the basic general shape and look of a Leo, except it had large thrashers on its back, it was bigger then even the Tallgeese, and the legs and arms were almost indistinguishable, it was reasonable to assume that both sets of limbs could be used for either function. Several of then looked slightly different from each other; for example, the one that was spotted on the North American West Coast had several large storage tanks, it was believed to have been sent to capture resources.  
  
"It just doesn't make any sense", WuFei commented, "Why would someone send new model Mobile Suit to Maine, a civilian area to boot?"  
  
"A show of force?", Sally suggested, shrugging a bit as she turned her eyes to another set of controls.  
  
WuFei sighed and shook his head, "Nah, if it was just to show off there are far better places then some small port town in Maine; New York City, Tokyo, Mexico City, Hong Kong...", he trailed off for a moment and continued, "none of those appear to be targeted."  
  
Sally turned her bright blue, mongrel Chinese eyes back to her partner. He had grown so much, he was no longer the angry kid she met in China back during the war. He was more mature, more focused and above all else, had more control over his temper. She felt kind of proud about it, like she was his big sister or something; she at least found it pleasing to think that she had something to do with his growth.  
  
"They have to be after something", he continued, "and isn't lobster."  
  
"or someone", Sally suggested as a small little red light began flashing, along with a low toned screech. "forty-five seconds!", she stated.  
  
WuFei tightened his grip on the smooth, metallic black direction controls and directed his attention to the viewing and data monitors. "I see him", he hissed. "Sally you have some missiles ready for me?", he directed.  
  
Sally nodded her head and pointed to an image monitor, "Remember, the orders are to spare as much of it as possible; we should aim for this leg joint and that rocket" Sally's finger hovered over the unusual mobile suit's left verier, "that should disable it."  
  
The mobile suit landed on all fours in a nearby forest.  
  
"It must have seen us coming", he commented, "he looked just ahead to notice that there were houses nearby. "Just as well", he continued, "we couldn't fight if it got to those houses."  
  
A beam turret dropped form the quadruped mobile suit's belly while a second unsheathed from its back and opened fire. These were the times when WuFei felt most alive, this was why he joined Preventers. These instances were few and far between but the rush he felt in a battle made his normally boring and mundane job complete. The streaks of light dashed over under and around the fighter but WuFei kept the wings from getting so much as singed. His heart pumped like a rabbit, adrenaline coursed through is veins, each movement played through in slow motion. WuFei dodged before the turrets could lock on; up, right, left, right, down, barrel roll. The fighter was neither as mobile nor as versatile as a mobile suit but there was a speed advantage and WuFei had trained himself over the years to use every bit of it. WuFei's eyes narrowed on the crosiers as his thumb smashed in a red button on the right control stick. One, two, three, four, five parallels of light were expelled from the fighter's double beam cannons, carving a dotted line of mangled metal from the bottom turret up to the top.  
  
"Ready Sally?", WuFei asked, the excitement of the fire exchange was radiating from him like an exploding star.  
  
The blond Chinese woman pressed a few buttons, fixating the targets into the rockets computers, "got em", she confirmed, catching WuFei's high spirit. Her finger compressed the final button and the two rockets were released.  
  
As the rockets blasted off, three long, thin, mechanical tentacles shot out of the mobile suit's side. WuFei, surprised by this reacted a little slow and was barely able to weave between the first two. The third however caught the missile plowing for the vernier rocket and was blown in two by the fiery shock wave. The Preventer Aircraft was too close to the blast radius to avoid the its wake entirely; it was thrown off course and lost part of its right wing.  
  
The cockpit was blinking red, lights of all type flashed, in an effort to warn the pilot about what he already knew, buzzers buzzed like yellow jackets, beepers beeped a chaotic symphony of despair; it was utter pandemonium as the fighter spiraled down into the dark, moonlit forest of leafless, frozen trees. Out of the corner of her sapphire eye, sally caught the image of the first missile connecting with its target and blowing off the mobile suit's leg, it then began to lose balance and fall as she and WuFei were shaken by another jolting shock-wave.  
  
"Brace yourself!", WuFei warned as he regained an unsteady control of the ship.  
  
The safety straps in there seats were the only things that the two Preventers from smashing their heads against the bulkheads as the aircraft dug into the rocky snow-covered earth. The friction of the trees, rocks and frozen soil against the metal belly of the fighter shook the two about in a violent frenzied storm of crashes, bumps, torn metal and bruises. It took about a minute for either of them to realize they were still alive. Many of the monitors were, blank, busted, or showing static but most of the communication equipment still looked functional.  
  
Sally released her safety straps and gasped; WuFei followed, shot up out of his seat and stumbled due to a weakness in his legs. Sally leaped to try and catch him but found herself stumbling as well; they found themselves in a tangled heap on the floor.  
  
"You contact Preventer Earth about this", he stated as he worked himself to his feet, "I'll see what I can do outside"  
  
"Wait, WuFei!" his somewhat annoyed partner called after him as he jumped out of a hatch into the freezing early morning air.  
  
He was always doing this, it was almost offensive at times but Sally had come to terms with the fact that his chauvinistic protection of women was just WuFei's way long ago and could generally deal with it. Still, he could have at least stayed long enough to head her advice in taking one of the emergency winter jackets.  
  
WuFei came to a clearing, the frosty wind swirled around him and bit his cheeks. He finished zipping his presenters jacket in a futile effort to stay warm and then caught a sight of horror above him, illuminated by the almost full moon's light. The mobile suit wasn't standing on four legs anymore it was standing on two, upside down, while tentacle like devices, similar to the ones that caused him to crash were hoisting the leg, or arm, which its counterpart seemed to be functioning as now, up towards the socket that it had been torn from. It then began walking in the direction of the settlement.  
  
"Oh, damn it!", the distraught Asian colonist cussed as he forced his legs, now damp in melted snow, out of there statue frozen position.  
  
He pursued the mobile suit through the woods as fast as he could, his moist panting hanging in the air in front of him. Crashing through ice coated thickets, glistening in the moonlight; jumping frozen logs hidden under snow, one of which tripping him, throwing his hands and face into a snow dune. Even that didn't stop him though, he just picked himself up and forced his stiff legs forward, not even bothering to brush the snow out of his shaggy ebony hair, held back in a short pony tale. The wind turned against him, blowing snow and a razor chill into his eyes, forcing them shut and agitating a teardrop to flow down his face for a half second before crystallizing at nose height. WuFei began slipping on something, presumably ice, but regained his balance, turning it into a short slide before latching onto something, a tree he thought. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity of following the echoing footsteps of a titanium giant, the faded screams of civilians and the honking of horns through an endless obstacle course of trees, frozen ponds and thorny underbrush he emerged into a snowy, incomplete subdivision street. His lips were blue, he was chattering like a wind up toy, his nose was full of mucus, he was out of breath, he could barely open his eyes and there was absolutely no feeling in any of his limbs. He saw his target, now standing right side up, leaning over a house down the street. Some people were running away, panicking in the street, some people just watched in bewilderment, others obviously hid in their houses while still a very few were too sound asleep to notice. He couldn't see exactly what was going on but from the blurry shadows he could make out against illumination of the street lights, it seemed that the mobile suit had just stuffed a person inside its chest.  
  
'Must be an internal compartment', WuFei figured in a frigid spur of enlightenment.  
  
The mobile suit then turned on its vernier rockets and blasted off, WuFei helpless to do anything but watch.  
  
"D...d...d...damn...mn... it", WuFei chattered out as he began to realize what a stupid idea it was to pursue that thing through the woods of Maine in the dead of winter. He tried to walk down the street some more to find some help but his legs bowed under him, unable, too cold and exhausted, to move another step and he fell to his knees.  
  
'I guess this is the end', he regretfully realized as his upper body slowly descended, face first, into the snowy sidewalk. 'Nataku... I'll be joining you shortly.'  
  
WuFei's final thoughts, however, were cut short as a strong, gloved, yet feminine hand pulled his body up out of the snow while the other slapped a cold weather jacket over his shoulders. The owner of the hands then knelt down in front of him and began wrapping the jacket around him tighter and slipped the hood over his round head. She - this was definitely a she - was wearing the same type of black, heavy coat, with synthetic fur around the zippers and openings. This woman was obviously tall and strong too, and kind judging from the way she wiped away the blood that began dripping from WuFei's nose. Her hood was up but he could see two long curls of sun gold hair draping out both sides and, though the glare from the streetlights kept him from looking through her snow goggles and into her eyes, he already knew they were blue but had an oriental squint about them; and also, probably were about as smug as her red lips. "Sally..?", he weakly asked, half expecting (his ego hoping) it was a hallucination.  
  
"Preventer Water to you, Preventer Five", she responded half jokingly. Her tone suddenly shifted to a patronizing one as she took off her gloves and began massaging the freezing Chinese man's bitter cold fingers; "You listen! I'm the ranking officer here, I don't boss you around half as much as I should, so when I say wait, you wait, got it!?", she hissed.  
  
"Yes ma'am", WuFei weekly uttered out. If he still had feeling in his limbs his pride might have been hurt, but he wasn't in a condition to argue.  
  
Sally then hoisted WuFei up, as much as she could at least, and supported him as they went to look for warmth. Though WuFei, like the other former Gundam Pilots, had grown over the years he was still an inch or two shorter then Sally, which wasn't too much to be embarrassed about, Sally was tall for a woman. "I guess your still more hot headed then I thought", she commented as they limped up the walkway of the nearest house.  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 3:56 AM (Belgium Time: 8:56 AM) ~*~*~  
  
"Thank you for your hospitality. Sniff!", a stuffy, blanket draped WuFei bid as a middle aged woman wrapped tightly in a pink robe, adorning bunny slippers on her feet, poured hot water into a mug.  
  
She looked down at him with a head full of curlers and replied, "You're welcome."  
  
"Well, can you tell us what that thing was then?", her husband, a balding man dressed in long underwear, asked.  
  
Sally let out a deep sigh as she weighed exactly what or if she should tell them, "A new model mobile suit", she finally revealed, they had taken them in after all, "that's all I can tell you."  
  
Too eager to warm his cold, aching bones to wait for the tea bag to saturate the steamy liquid, WuFei took a sip of the weak tea. A comforting warmth glided down his throat, settling in his belly and then diffusing throughout his body. "Don't panic, Preventers HQ is already on the situation. This should be over with by the end of the week", he assured he and his partner's hosts.  
  
Sally's aqua eyes diverted looking at her partner for a moment; "Could you please leave us for a moment?" she asked the two spouses kindly, "I have something I need to discuss with my partner; it's classified."  
  
The two accordingly exited the kitchen but stood near the door. Sally expected as much but it couldn't be helped so she whispered, "We got another update from Preventer Earth after we crashed. They've located a few more. They were using stealth technology.", she took a deep sigh hoping that it would give her partner time to brace himself for what's coming next, "One was found heading northwest at 6 E, 50 N..."  
  
The words only slowly began to sink into WuFei's mind. '6 E means that its just east of the Prime Meridian', he figured, '50 N puts it fairly north; it's heading northwest.' WuFei soon found that the only thing keeping one of the largest strings of profanity he had ever conceived from escaping his mouth were the two bystanders at the door and the fact that he concluded that kids must also have been living in this house.  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 8:44 AM (Maine Time: 3:44 AM) ~*~*~  
  
Save the low humming of the engine, silence filled the passenger part of the presidential limousine. Heero was on one side watching for any possible disturbances. It was an almost useless gesture since the limousine was always escorted but it made him feel like he was doing something. On the other side Relena watched the fields fly past her tinted window. Not that she could see much on a day like this. Warm air currents which blow in from the Atlantic usual kept Brussels and the surrounding area (former Belgium) fairly mild during the winter. However, in the winter months, clouds and fog weren't an uncommon site and today was no exception for that. It was pretty cold out though, not freezing, but there was still snow on the ground from the previous day.  
  
"Who ever thought of making the capital Brussels?", Relena asked, hoping that she could somehow ease the tension with some meaningless chatter.  
  
Heero simply shrugged a bit and grunted out an, "I don't know", under his breath.  
  
"I mean, why couldn't it be closer to the equator", she continued, "I mean, there are plenty of beautiful things around here but it would be nice if there was more sun in the winter months; don't you think?"  
  
Heero turned his attention to his employer for a moment; "where would you put it?", he asked.  
  
"Oh, I don't know; some place warmer", she answered. "I hear Cuba is nice", she chimed, smiling a bit.  
  
"Hmph", Heero grunted in response. It was still amazing to him how different she appeared in public then she was in real life. Up at a podium or anywhere in the public eye or the presence of other politicians she always seemed so strong and independent; when it was just him, however, her backbone seemed to dissolve, especially lately. He'd been trying to determine why for the past five years but the answer always eluded him. Sometimes he even wondered if his presence was just detrimental to her health.  
  
The painful silence continued, tearing into the mind of the already ill at ease young woman, dressed in her normal business attire. It hurt so much, it drove into her stomach where it burst into shrapnel tearing chunks out of her heart. What made it even worse was the knowledge that it was her fault; had she kept her legs crossed at least they could have maintained that awkward friendship they were able to work out. Now she didn't even know what they had, what she had. She was very much alone and isolated; it wasn't like there were a lot of people she associated with on a day to day basis she considered as friends; her adoptive mother was still alive but was living on the other half of the Earth; her brother, Milliardo and Noin - whom she also considered to be a friend - were on Mars; Cheryl was nice but she never got too close with her and Pagan died two years ago. In effect, the only person in her life right now that she felt close to was a Japanese colonist with intense blue eyes and had been trained as an assassin; whom she just so happened to find on a beach eight years ago; initially threatened to kill her; seemed to have a dislike for people in general; was stoically silent and was sitting no more then a few feet away, angry at her. Her soft creamy hand clenched her ivory suit as tears once again began building up in her aqua blue eyes. "H,Heero..?", she stuttered, "I want to talk to you about something."  
  
Heero turned faced her fixating his icy blue eyes on her. "What is it?", he asked.  
  
After two deep breaths Relena felt composed enough to continue, "I wanted to say I'm sorry, Heero."  
  
"That it?", he asked turning his attention back to the window. It was nice to know, but he assumed that much already.  
  
"No, it isn't", she hurtfully shot back, "I wanted to try and explain why that happened. It isn't any excuse but I've been under a lot of stress lately; my career, the media, this accounting scandal and...", she trailed off.  
  
Heero turned his head back around with interest, "And what?" He couldn't do much about the career thing but the media he had always helped her out with and he was beginning to make progress on the accounting scandal; if there was something he could do about item number four he'd do it.  
  
"and you!", she blurted out releasing a stream of salty fluid down her rosy cheek.  
  
"Me?", Heero repeated; her words hitting him like a throwing dart, "what did I do?"  
  
"You... I... If you could just...", she bit her bottom lip, the fluid liberation of her eyeballs intensified, "I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable or like some piece of meat or like I just want your body or anything like that. It just all was so much and I needed some kind of relief, from somewhere, and you were there and...", she heisted, "if no one else has ever told you this before, you are really hot and I am so sorry", and moment's awkward silence passed, "I'm not strong like you Heero, I can't cope with things as well as you can; I need... comforts. Ever since you've become my bodyguard you've been so much help, you've always gone out of your way for me and I completely violated your trust and there's no excuse; but, but", she swallowed and took another breath of air, "You don't feel the same way I do, I understand; but if you can just forgive me I promise I won't ever push you to do anything you don't want to again."  
  
Heero was shocked. He looked deep into those teary cerulean eyes of hers and came to a decision, "Relena... I've been meaning to talk about that too."  
  
Relena - who was dabbing the wet spots on her cheek with a tissue, expecting the worst and briefly contemplating whether suicide would be a good way to alleviate her pain or not - looked back at Heero, with a perk of interest. There wasn't any malice in his voice; that was a good sign.  
  
"I wanted to say that I'm sorry.", he continued.  
  
"No", Relena cut him off, "Heero, it's your body; you shouldn't feel obligated to do anything you don't want to with it. Just because you're a guy doesn't mean you have to; and that's part of what I admire about you, Heero."  
  
Heero took a deep sigh and resumed, "I wouldn't have held it against you anyway; you've done a lot for..."  
  
A powerful explosive noise shook the limousine, interrupting Heero's speech. Their vehicle skid to a halt shaking both passengers senseless. Heero, being the bodyguard, figured out what happened with only a moments delay, upon hearing the terrifying and familiar sound of a mobile suit landing nearby. He looked out the window to size what they were up against. The suit was like none he had ever seen; it was a light whitish gray color, allowing it to blend in with the cloudy sky and fog more effectively. Furthermore, it was also unusually large and had a beam cannon on its belly and back. It also seemed to have some kind of stealth device, much like the Deathscythe's hyper jammers but Heero couldn't be sure about that. Lastly, the mobile suit was on all fours.  
  
His mind raced, was Relena safer in the car or out? Was this a kidnapping or an assassination? Judgeing by the mobile suit's size it wasn't likely that the armament carried by the escort vehicles wouldn't be able to fend the suit off anyway, so even if it was a kidnapping she was still a sitting duck in the limousine. He unbuckled her safety belt, "GET OUT NOW!"  
  
Relena, still dazed, followed her body guards instructions and shakily stepped out of the vehicle.  
  
Heero was right behind her and gave her a small but forceful shove, "RUN!", he ordered as he looked back at the advancing mobile suit. Bullets and beams and even a small rocket were pounding it but none of the escort vehicles had enough fire power to do any significant damage.  
  
His communicator clicked on, "Agent Yuy, there is an unidentified mobile suit in the Brussles area, get the president to..."  
  
"We're fighting it off, she was in transit!", he screamed back at it. He reached for his hand gun but then stopped himself, 'waste of ammo', he thought. For all he knew the suit was a decoy. He looked back to see that Relena had escaping into the foggy field; he could barely see her faint outline through to fog. "Shit!", he chided himself as he raced after her.  
  
The sound of the blaring guns had grown distant as the panting frenzied President escaped deeper and deeper into the ghostly abyss, cursing both herself, for eating a full breakfast this morning and whoever brilliant person invented the corset. Her pallid dress shoes made a panicked rhythm with the cold mud upon the field; the fog seemed to grow worse, enveloping her in a blanket of white; she had no idea where she was or where she was going, except away from the violent flashes behind her. A large resounding boom overtook her from behind, accompanied by the faint death cries of men. The distraction caused her to stumble and lose her balance, plummeting face first into the mud. Her sore hands lifted her torso out of the wet, rich soil as she tried to ignore the pain flaring up in her side. She squealed as two callous masculine arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her up.  
  
"Keep going!", the familiar voice of her bodyguard boomed in her ear.  
  
"Heero..?", she asked, already knowing the answer as her feet began scampering again.  
  
"GO!", he insisted, tugging on her mud drenched hand, in an effort urge her along.  
  
The weapons fire behind them had ceased; Heero could reasonably assume it wasn't a victory for them which meant the Suit would advance on their position soon enough. He frantically looked about for someplace they could hide or escape to, but all he saw was empty fields and whiteness. Then, they came across what could be their salvation, a river. It wasn't a big river but it seemed to have a good flow from the sound of it; he just hoped it didn't become too violent for Relena to handle as he dragged the somewhat surprised and reluctant young woman into the current.  
  
Jumping into that water was comparable to being mauled by a gang of thugs, armed with sickles carved out of solid ice; it took the breath right out of them. The current was a little stronger then Heero predicted, carrying them along at a, not entirely rapid but uncomfortably fast pace; Heero struggling to keep both his and the terrified president's head above water against they're full soaking attire weighing them down. "Calm down; try to relax", he instructed the moment he had they're heads were above the water in unison.  
  
Relena couldn't calm down though, this water was freezing, all of her cloths were bogging her down underneath the surface constantly, and when she above the water the cold almost kept her breath away; plus, she knew she was swallowing water. Then, she felt something coil around her waist uncomfortably tight. It couldn't be Heero, he was latching onto her upper body - one hand conveniently over her breast - and it was too long and hard to be something organic. Out of the water she came, Heero still latching onto her, and before she knew it what was going on the two of them were thrown into a small dark padded compartment. The door closed behind them, with a snap, cutting off the only light source.  
  
As he lay under and next to a violently shivering, soaking wet, cold to the touch and choking out water Miss Relena Darlian, he examined their current situation. They were just tossed into a small padded compartment in the chest of the new mobile suit; the target was clearly Relena but he just happened to come along for the ride; both he and Relena are dripping profusely and shaking; this compartment was very small - only a bit bigger then a coffin - forcing them to be within a very interment proximity of each other and there was almost no light whatsoever, the most he could see was some small glistening from water droplets, reflecting the emissions of a small red dot on the ceiling.. His shaking hands searched the wall and found a small grated hard place, 'at least there's an air source', he thought.  
  
"H-H-Heero?", she stuttered.  
  
Until Heero opened his mouth to answer, he hadn't realized exactly how cold he was, "W-what?"  
  
"W...w, where are we?"  
  
He took in as deep a breath as he could, "W, we're in the m, mobile suit". He knew what had to be done, the dripping garments had to be taken off or they might freeze to death. He began unbuttoning Relena's jacket, "D,don't t,take this the wrong way", he assured her.  
  
Relena, who was just about done emptying her lungs of fluid, understood and after several minutes of awkward, often embarrassing positioning and shifting about in the cramped confines of their coffin-like prison, lost in a tangle of their own arms an legs, they were finally down to their undergarments - neither of them were bold enough to suggest the release of those. They huddled together, shivering moist flesh against shivering moist flesh, to keep warm.  
  
Heero ran his hand through Relena's wet golden hair to try and calm her. The words that soon slipped from his mouth he couldn't control, but he did his best to keep the statement as matter of fact as possible - this wasn't the time nor place to do that - "Relena, I had no idea you could bend like that." There wasn't much light but he could tell when they were rolling around that she had gotten herself into some less then usual positions.  
  
"I used to do some gymnastics", she commented; she couldn't restrain herself from playing with that wet, messy, chocolate mop on his head.  
  
Something began swelling in his head, clouding his thoughts, as the impact of the idea that he was only wearing some wet boxers while she only adorned a bra and panties - both equally wet - finally took full effect in his mind. He took a deep breath, "I did not know that; you shouldn't have quit", he commented. Embarrassment overtook him as he began to realize that blood was rushing to a particular region of his lower body. Heero didn't know where they were being taken to but wherever it was, it was going to be a very long trip.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
AN: Well, wasn't that interesting? I bet you can't wait for the next chapter; I wonder what's going to happen? Hopefully, it won't take too long, eh? I hoped you enjoyed this chapter; please give a review. 


	6. In the Dark

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters associated with it. I am not making any money off of this; I'm just doing it for fun.  
  
AN: First, I would like to mention that I have been able to read the actual Episode Zero manga since I wrote the first few chapters myself; which not only helped me write this chapter (and likely chapters to come) but also helped give me some more insight into Heero's character.  
  
If you've kept up with this fanfiction I doubt I really have to warn you that this chapter contains things that small children probably shouldn't be exposed to.  
  
The Beehive  
  
Chapter 6: In the Dark  
  
DATE: Feburuary 17(?), 203 AC LOCATION: Unknown (in transit)  
  
~*~*~ TIME: Unknown ~*~*~  
  
If it was possible to measure the buildup of sexual tension in a given space; it is likely that the fifty cubic foot compartment that the former pilot of Wing Zero and the former queen of the World Nation were encased in would probable hold the record. Hours had passed, how many was unknown since Heero couldn't find his watch. In that time they're conditions changed however, instead of suffering from the extreme cold of winter waters, their combined body heat had eventually warmed the small chamber up; so they were suffering from the heat and clamminess. The air brought in by the small vents helped to curve the problem slightly, but generally the atmosphere was stagnate, hot and humid. To distract themselves from the fact that they were in such intimate position, stripped down to their undergarment, hot and sweaty and illuminated only in a dim eerie red light above their heads - which they're eyes had adjusted to more completely in the course of their experience - they had tried playing all sorts of mind games. Of course, these games had bore little fruit; they both found it impossible not to think about sex. It was physically impossible for the two young adults not to be in extensive physical contact with each other; each movement was an act of foreplay; the movement of a body part could rub against another sending erotic shivers down the spine of the second prisoner.  
  
Relena held what felt like a wet sock up to the small light source, noting that the sock still seemed dark even right in front of the crimson glow. "I think this one is yours", she commented before tossing it on Heero's face.  
  
They had been trying to sort the haphazard arrangement of wet cloths that they had scattered all about their confinement. It was mostly, a simple matter of holding them up to the red light, since most of Heero's things were dark while Relena had been mostly wearing white.  
  
A little annoyed Heero stuffed the sock into the soaking jumble closest to him. "Do you know where my gun belt is? I may need it later", he inquired.  
  
Relena shuffled her feet a little to try an feel around, until she came across something hard; "I think I found it", she commented. She used her feet to pinch the belt in a grip and then leaned into Heero to give her legs room to bow upwards and put the belt in reach. Her heart fluttered as he reached over her arm to grab the weapon; his warm breath trailing across her neck soft neck while every inch of their upper front bodies tightly pressed together; repressing her nature built impulses to try and hold his strapping flesh to hers. She gasped a bit, realizing that she hadn't been breathing, as they broke away from the embrace.  
  
'Death, pain, blood, dismembered limbs, cold showers...', Heero distracted his mind, with little effect on his overall mental state. Despite his efforts, his head still bounced with a collage of indecent ideas, further agitated by the swirl of pheromones in their sweaty coffin. Heero took a big gulp of humid air, "Anything else down there?", his monotone voice weakly asked.  
  
"Y,yeah", a still recovering Relena responded after. "Heero?", she continued, "is that jacket behind you yours or mine?" Her hand retreated when she realized that it was still resting on Heero's muscular chest.  
  
"Mine", he replied, feeling it up with his hand just to make sure.  
  
Had there been more light Heero would have better seen the expression of puzzlement on the young president's face, "How can you tell? You didn't even hold it up to the light?"  
  
"I just know", he shot back, something about her question seemed to upset him.  
  
"Well then this one must be mine", she verbally thought, trying to figure out why Heero was upset while at the same time trying to think of a method to bring it up to her arms which wouldn't put them in such an awkwardly intimate position.  
  
This whole ordeal, so far, had been a dream come true for either of them, at some level at least; yet, at the same time, a total nightmare.  
  
Relena, decided to drop the idea of retrieving articles of clothing down at her feet, for the time being at least. "I think it was my turn?", she half stated half inquired.  
  
"Yeah, I think it was", Heero responded, more then welcoming back the distraction of their trivia game.  
  
"Okay, um...",the desperate young woman stuttered, "how about European History..?", she trailed of to think of a question, "Charles II of England, what did he do?"  
  
"Kind of general, don't you think?", the shadowed half mocked.  
  
The experience of being within inches of one of an abnormally physically fit young man, whom she just happened to carry a torch for, for the past several years; both of them being scantily clad and having to restrain herself from doing a single thing to satisfy her instincts because it had recently been made clear to her that he didn't love her the same way she loved him, for several hours, had worn Relena's patience thin; "Just answer the damn question Yuy!"  
  
Heero's mind raced for an answer; though it was heavily distracted by the red outline the light reflecting off of his employer's moist hip, it still computed quickly. 'Charles II of England... tough one... I don't...', then an answer hit him, he didn't know if it was the right one and he had no clue where he found it out either, nor what it was until it escaped his mouth, "Wasn't he the guy that had the condom invented?"  
  
Silence, an uneasy silence settled as the two perverse minds of a man and a woman who had been pushed to their limits were incited to think about Heero's answer.  
  
"Well... um... I don't know Heero", the blond girl could feel the heat of a deep blush in her cheeks, "I don't know if he had anything to do with that or not. I was thinking something more along the lines of taking modern day New York from the Dutch, or something else political."  
  
"I see...", a particularly embarrassed Heero Yuy responded. 'I must be associating with Maxwell too much', he muttered under his breath.  
  
"Heero", an almost depressed sounding feminine voice wearily sighed, "I don't think Duo had anything to do with it."  
  
Heero was a little surprised, he hadn't realized he had said that out loud. His astonishment was lost in the darkness, however.  
  
"I think we need to talk about this, this...", she trailed off for a moment to find a good word, "issue we're having." Without her even realizing it she pulled her body closer to his and held his hand.  
  
"I didn't know there were any issues besides the fact that we've been captured by some unknown terrorist organization", Heero dryly replied, trying to ignore the seductively inviting body that was drawing closer to him.  
  
"Heero", Relena sighed, "You've been poking me in the leg with that issue ever since we were stuffed in this stupid coffin. There's no point in trying to pretend it isn't there, it's going to drive us insane."  
  
The blonde woman's mouth was getting uncomfortably close to his neck and from the angle in which her breath traveled he could only assume that her head was tilted downwards. "What are you saying Relena?", Heero's tone suggested mix of any number of emotions; from surprise, to nervousness, to guilt, to anxiety, to an irrepressible desire, as well.  
  
"I...", she started, "I wish I knew", she finally admitted.  
  
"Relena, we're in a life threatening situation", Heero factually pointed out after taking a deep breath and analyzed his thoughts, "I have to keep my guard up. I can't be distracted." He put his hand on her shoulder with the intent of pushing her away but found that it was exceedingly difficult to order his arm to exert any significant amount of force against hers.  
  
"You're distracted already!", an emotionally confused and aggravated Relena shot back.  
  
There was a torturous silence that elapsed for several hour long seconds.  
  
"Heero, what are our odds?", she asked, as she embraced the object of her eight year obsession, "Please be honest."  
  
Heero ran his hands through her, still somewhat moist hair, hoping she might be soothed. "Judging by this mobile suit, it's likely a fairly powerful organization. The Earth Sphere might even be thrown into another war."  
  
"Our odds?", she cried, tightening her grip and began lightly nibbling at his well toned shoulders.  
  
"They'll probably use you as a hostage", he assured her, "You'll be safe." He felt an unusual sensation from just under his rib cage hindering his breathing pattern, like something was growing and trying to escape. He couldn't quite bring himself to telling that beautiful young woman to stop.  
  
Relena buried her face in Heero's chest, "I know that. What about you?", her muffled voice pleaded.  
  
Heero's heart seemed to stop at that moment and he didn't say anything for a while. "That's not important", he finally answered.  
  
"Yes it is Heero!", she protested, "I don't want to...", she started again, "If I, if this is the last time we have... you have... I want you to... not feel guilty. I want to do this."  
  
"You want this?", repeated a questioning, mouth quivering and half submissive bodyguard, "here?"  
  
"Men aren't the only ones with sex drives, Heero", she teasingly whispered back.  
  
"But...", he began but cut himself of as she began pecking at his neck.  
  
More silence passed as Heero soaked in what Relena just told him and calculated on what to do. Needless to say, his conclusion was heavily tainted by the events of past several hours and the fact that the girl in question didn't seem to mind that they couldn't even see each other clearly. He would have never thought that his employer was so kinky. "Are you sure?", he asked.  
  
"Yes", she meekly answered. 'Why am I doing this?', a small voice in the very back of her mind silently berated her as she continued pecking at her obsession's neck.  
  
Heero had to admit, that felt pretty good; he tightened him embrace dipped his head down to the proximity of hers. He took a deep breath, "Relena, I can't, I...", his thought process was interrupted however by an old memory from his past:  
  
"Here's one last bit of good advice. No matter what happens, follow your feelings."  
  
Odin's last lesson. Somewhere, it had always stayed with him. Even after the training, that last lesson of his always popped back into his mind at the most inopportune times. And almost every time, it always trumped the most logical course of action to take. Heero had a love hate relationship with those words. On one hand it always forced him to do things he felt were a bad idea, on the other, he had yet to have any serious regrets about actions caused by it. It was the reason Relena was still alive to begin with, after all. 'She is a grown woman', he concluded, 'if she really wants her first time - at least, I think it's her first time - to be here that's her decision.' He planted a delicate kiss on her cheek, and jerked back as he realized he'd never really done that before.  
  
Relena's hand came up to his jaw line, "It's all right Heero, I want this." It was a lie. What she wanted was his heart; she had already claimed his time, loyalty, skills, strength trust, respect, friendship and from the looks of it, was about claim his body too. It was a shame she couldn't get the whole set, but she could at least take pride in the fact she had everything else. 'Why do you do this to yourself?', that annoying voice in the back of her mind continued to chastise, 'Why are you always making yourself his victim? This man, it's been eight years, why do you still throw yourself at him? Really now Relena, you make it impossible for him to do anything but hurt you. Why are you enjoying this so much? Are you that accustomed to heart ache?'  
  
Heero's mouth broke away from it's heated lock with his want-to-be lover. "Are you sure?", he asked again in surprise, still out of breath.  
  
Another forceful kiss was her response. 'Bastard; why does he have to be so nice about it? It just makes you want him more, doesn't it? Has it ever occurred to you though that he could just be doing this because you're his superior?'  
  
He hadn't made a move to remove her remaining clothing items yet; he was content enough to just hold her and kiss her, wishing he had done this earlier. Before this continued he had to tell her though. It wasn't fair, he shouldn't be telling her this when there's no guaranty he had another day to live, he shouldn't be telling her this when they were in the hands of the enemy. It shouldn't happen like this, not to her, to him maybe but not to her.  
  
She could see the silhouette of the man she loved, outlined by the dim red light, probably eyeing her like the piece of meat she was offering herself as. 'Why did he have to come back into your life? You used to be fine without him, you were actually getting over him, until he became your bodyguard that is. There's just something about him, isn't there? The moment you saw him, that first day, you were addicted all over again, right? No, it wasn't even then, was it? You fell for him all over again once you saw his papers. The moment you knew he was with Preventers you couldn't resist it, could you? You had to place a special request for his assignment. You had barely even spoken for a year and you couldn't help yourself, you didn't even bother looking at the others, did you? It's ironic, isn't it? Who would have thought that Relena Darlian, the 'Princess of Peace', is such an obsessive, love sick, wanting little whore in private? And just think, women for years to come will look up to you as a role model.'  
  
"I wanted to ask... No, first, I want to explain something to you, Relena.", his mouth gently sounded as his hand stroked her cheek. He wished there was enough light to see her face. "I think you should know that I think...", his hand had come across something unusually wet. "Relena, are you crying?", Heero suddenly interrupted himself in puzzlement.  
  
"No, I just have something in my eye", she choked out, apparently she had been crying.  
  
Heero wasn't quite sure what to do, and quite frankly, was a little annoyed. 'What does she expect from me?' he silently pondered. "Relena, I wouldn't have...", he paused for a moment to think of a good word, "I wouldn't have kissed you, if you didn't ask me to?"  
  
The woman under him was trying to hide it but her answer was still a sob, angry too, "I know!" She forcefully pressed her mouth up against his again and tightened her grip.  
  
Heero tried to shuffle off of her but he found that her legs had been hooked around him. Emotions, thoughts and theories raced in the former pilot's head. Something about this didn't add up; she was the one instigating this, he could even hear her soft moans of satisfaction and contentment stirring the suppressed passion he held for her. Yet, for some unknown, she was crying. He knew he had to stop this somehow; which he soon realized was a lot easier thought then done, noticing that his hand was already picking at what felt like her bra straps.  
  
"Relena", he was finally able to gasp as he felt her hand sliding underneath the elastic of his boxers, "What is your problem?"  
  
A silencing kiss was her response.  
  
Heero could already feel his will begin to wane as her tongue slid into his mouth; he couldn't miss this small window of control though, he'd have to use force.  
  
Relena wasn't particularly out of shape, there were a few small pockets of fat tissue on her belly and legs that she fret about but she was still a very healthy female specimen. Compared to Heero though, who had trained long and hard in the arts of war and assassination from his youth, she was a twig that could be snapped at leisure. And the fact that she had turned into a malleable puddy in Heero's arms didn't help her situation as she found her arms pinned above her head and her lip bond with the former Gundam pilot severed. She knew it made no difference in the darkness but she shot Heero's outline a questioning glare of discontentment.  
  
"What is wrong with you?", he finally sputtered out as he began to truly realize exactly how thin the fabric of his boxers and her panties really were.  
  
"What's wrong with you?", she angrily echoed back, emotions still chaotically flaring like someone lit a match in a fireworks depot. "I know you want this; I can literally feel it!", she continued.  
  
After a few moments, taken to gather his thoughts - a cesspool of angry, naughty and generally irrational ideas - he decided to ignore most of them and continue with what he was planning on saying when this whole indiscretion started. "Relena, I wanted to tell you something..."  
  
Just then the padded floor dropped out from under them and they rolled out onto a large much larger padded platform, in a tangled heap with their drenched, discarded clothing.  
  
As the platform began moving the two disoriented lovers managed to untangle themselves and get to their feet. The air was, thankfully, cool and of a tolerable humidity. There was light too; it was dim light but it was enough to see. Unfortunately, it wasn't a settling sight they beheld. The platform they were on was square, about three yards on each side, and being carried away from the mobile suit that they had just dropped out of by clusters of tentacles and mechanical arms, at a not entirely slow, yet not entirely fast pace. The platform was kept amazingly steady, considering how it was always being passed from one set of arms to the other. What was also amazing was the room they were in, it was enormous. It seemed to be some underground mobile suit hanger, initially at least, but there were so many mechanical hands and tentacles hanging from the walls and ceiling it was hard to see most of it.  
  
A chill took effect on Relena, whom wrapped her arms around her mostly bare body in an effort to keep warm. Heero was cold too but their cloths were still too wet to be of any use. As they continued to move, Heero had begun digging through his pile of cloths until pulling his gun out.  
  
The platform had finally been snapped up against a small catwalk - extending to an unseen point in the distance - where it settled, still held up by the tentacles.  
  
Heero's deep blue eyes wondered the area, gun ready to shoot at the first sign of trouble. For a moment those eyes couldn't help but rest on the woman he was meant to protect, he hadn't really been able to see her before. For an instant his eyes tracked up the smooth skin of her gorgeous legs to where they met and disappeared under a laced fabric. He eyeballed her even tummy indented on the sides before meeting the rib cage where her arms folded over her chest and shoulders. Her head cautiously turned from side to side, apparently as taken back by their ghastly surroundings as he; her disheveled honey blond tresses flowing from side to side. This lovely moment was short lived, however, and as quickly as it had trailed off, his mind was back on track. He cautiously stepped off the platform, to the catwalk scanning the long, narrow bridge to its end at, what looked like, a small doorway; no one was there.  
  
He still held his firearm carefully but relaxed slightly before turning to his charge; "This doesn't make sense", he verbally pondered, "There's no one here."  
  
Relena looked up at him, blinking in uncertainty, "Maybe we're supposed to walk over there", she suggested.  
  
"Either way, we're holding our position", Heero assessed as he noticed one of the small orbs that tipped several of the tentacles above them, glowing an unsettling shade of robin's egg blue.  
  
"An act of wisdom", echoed an unidentified, yet strangely familiar voice.  
  
Both nearly naked captives thrashed their heads about, looking for the source of the voice.  
  
"Who is this?", the now firmly composed female president demanded.  
  
"Oh come now, 'princess', you recognized me before. Or has the notion of jumping your poor bodyguard so completely consumed you mind that you no longer recall your old friend.", the voice smugly cackled.  
  
"T, Tyler..?", Relena sputtered in disbelief.  
  
"Precisely", the voice answered back as an almost human figured dropped down, in front of the platform. He was extremely pale, lined with metallic blue veins. His chest and legs were covered in a black, tough looking fabric, integrated with an array of circuitry and other devices. His arms and legs were mounted with pods, which sprouted tentacle like devices similar to those networked around the gigantic hanger. On his back was mounted a large, black, metallic, backpack, sprouting even more tentacles and feeding a number of wires into the back of Tyler's metal grafted skull. Two metallic brown eyes, also implanted with circuitry, narrowed on the two prisoners in amusement.  
  
Heero immediately unloaded two shots into the arrogant figures chest but they seemed to have little effect. The impact didn't even seem to phase him and once the bullets were lodged in, the wounds seemed to fade.  
  
"Not a good idea", Tyler interrupted Heero as he changed his aim for Tyler's head.  
  
Heero paused for a moment in surprise.  
  
"If you shoot me in the head it may hinder this particular vessels computing power but I have a backup", he calmly informed, "and this installation's computer system is programmed to load my backup into a compatible vessel if this one is destroyed." A pallid smile bowed on Tyler's lips, "I think hers will do." He didn't need to gesture to Relena, he knew Heero knew what whom he was talking about.  
  
Heero's pause continued as he tried to absorb what his target just said. He was cut short, however, as a pointy tentacle shot through Heero's weapon, tearing it away from his hand.  
  
"It's a good thing you hesitated", Tyler mocked, "No such system exists. Had you pulled the trigger you would have undermined this whole operation." The tentacle crushed the gun in two and let the pieces drop to the floor, far below the platform. "Of course", Tyler continued, "The Beehive would no longer have a coherent direction so there's no telling what would happen. It might have even consumed the whole world."  
  
While a fuming Heero restrained his urge to jump that cocky bastard right then and there, the coolheaded politician stepped in-between the two to prevent Heero from doing something stupid.  
  
"The Beehive?", she asked, "What's going on?"  
  
"Well, its quite simple", the cyborg answered, glad to finally be able to talk to someone who was still thinking rationally, "The Beehive Project was actually intended to be used by the Darter Corporation, for military purposes, in a planned coup, which aimed to conquer the Earth Sphere more completely then ever before imagined. Through my own genius, I was able to subdue Mr. Darter and the other scientists involved with the original Beehive Project and turn the Beehive to my own devices. Any questions?"  
  
The bluntness of his response left the two dumbfounded. Something about the way he proudly presented the information as if it were some every day event that they actually understood demanded a queer look.  
  
"Isn't the Beehive that thing with the microscopic machines?", Heero finally commented.  
  
Tyler's annoyance was apparent in his tone, "Yes, it's a supercomputer that organizes and coordinates the activities of trillions of specially made nano-bots, known of Bees."  
  
The two of them stayed silent for a few more moments before Relena finally broke it. "Why did you bring us here?"  
  
"Where is here?", Heero dryly added.  
  
"You're in a hidden underground section of the Darter Corporation's Desert Lab in Africa, which they were planning as using for a base of operations", was his immediate response. He gestured to Heero, "I wasn't on planning on any stowaways. Which reminds me, I'm terribly sorry for the discomforting trip. I didn't design that thing to account for two people." He looked at Relena smuggly, "As for you, First, being the president of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation you're an effective hostage; second, for my own personal entertainment; it's so very lonely down here."  
  
Heero glared at Tyler while protectively pulling Relena back behind him.  
  
"Oh come now", Tyler patronized, "I'm not a barbarian; that would be against my very purposes for doing this in the first place. And even if those were my intentions its not like you could stop me. I just plan on tormenting you, gloating and the like.  
  
"Now if you'll excuse me; I have a few demands to make. If you follow the catwalk there it will take you to the restroom facilities and remind me to feed you later."  
  
Tyler's voice was, to say the least belittling. 'Bastard', Heero silently commented.  
  
"I heard that!", Tyler piped up mockingly. "Oh, one last thing. I know you've noticed those blue spherical objects; you see, they let me read your mind."  
  
Relena was pretty angry at this point as well, "W, what? You're telling me that you can invade our most private thoughts."  
  
"Well, sort of...", the mechanical maniac replied straightforward, "I can only read what you're thinking about but that's about as good. This for example, bed wetter!"  
  
Silence, only tainted by the echoes of mechanical sounds in the background, stretched between them for several minutes as the two enraged young adults tried to comprehend what he meant by "bed wetter".  
  
"See", Tyler tauntingly broke the silence, "Now I know that you", he looked at Relena, "had an incident where you wet the bed at the age of seven. Really now, I thought you were a big girl."  
  
Relena sheepishly shrunk back as her face turned several shades of red.  
  
Tyler responded with a menacing grin of self satisfaction. "Anyway, don't try anything funny or I'll know about it." As he began to be carried away by the tentacle devices around him he stopped for a moment; "Oh, by the way, put your cloths back on for Peat's sake! I'm trying to induce evolution here, not reduce humanity back to savagery.", he commented before disappearing in a see of darkness.  
  
A little embarrassed, now that they were reminded of their state of undress, the confused and somewhat disoriented couple began laying out their cloths to dry.  
  
"Ass hole", Heero snorted, not surprisingly a resentment was already clear and present on his part.  
  
Relena, on the other hand was much more hushed. She couldn't believe this was happening. She had only been Tyler's friend for a week or so, and that was years ago, but he seemed like such a nice kid. And the way he talked about Mr. Darter and the other scientists, it was as if he thought he wasn't guilty of the same crimes. It was all very confusing. What did he mean by 'induce evolution'? 'What are you up to Tyler?', she pondered as her bare feet began carrying her to the catwalk.  
  
Heero looked up at her in concern, "Where are you going?"  
  
"We were cooped up in that mobile suit thing for hours; I have to go", she answered, somewhat annoyed to be questioned by her bodyguard right now. "Unless you want to come too, that is."  
  
Heero sighed a bit as he stood up and followed his employer down the long dark bridge; He wasn't about to leave her alone in a place like this. Besides, he was realizing about then that he could use some relief himself.  
  
DATE: February 17, 203 AC LOCATION: Preventer Headquarters  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 1:00 PM ~*~*~  
  
It had been the worst security breach since the Mariemeia incident. Someone, somewhere had developed and produced a new and powerful model of mobile dolls. To make matters worse, they were able to abduct the president of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation, and all of this, right under the noses of the Preventers. Needless to say, Lady Une's office was in an uproar.  
  
"Okay, Earth, We've confirmed their location.", the red headed Preventer handed Une a clipboard and scurried out of the office. No one wanted to stand idly unless ordered to when a situation like this happened.  
  
The long haired brunet scanned the document in front of her with her contact fitted eyes before turning back to the vidphone monitor. "They're in Africa", she informed, "It looks like a lab of the Darter Corporation."  
  
"The Darter Corporation?", projected the voice of Sally Po from the phone, "So is the Darter Corporation behind these attacks? What else do we know?"  
  
Une was skimming the second page, "The Darter Corporation had been working on something called The Beehive Project. It was government funded; not secret but they don't appear to have made much noise about it either. It looks like it has something to do with nano-bot technology."  
  
"Well, we definitely didn't encounter a nano-bot, that's for sure.", Sally commented.  
  
The woman behind the desk sighed, "But you said that mobile doll was able to repair itself?"  
  
"Yeah, that's right", Sally confirmed, slightly confused by what her commander was trying to get at, "What does that have to do with anything though?"  
  
"It says here that The Beehive could use nano-machines, called Bees, to as regenerate an arm on a human being.", replied a more then mildly concerned Lady Une.  
  
Sally considered this for a few seconds, "So you're saying, that the Darter Corporation may have found a way to apply this to mobile suits?"  
  
"I sincerely hope not. Water, return to HQ before going to Africa, and tell your partner. They haven't made any demands or declarations yet but we may need to pull the "emergency supply" out of storage before this is over."  
  
"Roger", replied the blonde Chinese woman, "We'll return to headquarters immediately, Water out."  
  
Another line on Lady Une's vidphone began ringing and was likewise opened by her graceful index finger, "Earth, we have a transmission from the terrorists. They say they want to speak with you."  
  
'Speak of the devil', Une mumbled under her breath, pumping herself up to speak with the most vile and manipulative of terrorists imaginable. "Patch it through", she ordered.  
  
"Yes ma'am", the voice answered back.  
  
As the commander of the Preventers and a former ranking member of Oz, Lady Une, was well trained and experienced in dealing with the most violent and vile of terrorists as well as hostage situations. She didn't even feel it was necessary to ask for their demands; they were likely money, power or both. In the old system the answer would have been simple; the Alliance and Oz never made it a common policy to negotiate with terrorists but The Earth Sphere Unified Nation prioritized human life over victory, making these situations so much more complicated. Another problem was that the main hostage was the president; furthermore, since the Earth Sphere Unified Nation didn't have an organized military it could very well be that the enemy had more fire power too.  
  
"Greetings", sounded an unsettling voice from the speaker, "I hope you don't mind that I'm not sending a visual; I didn't see the necessity in it."  
  
"Who are you and what are you after?", demanded the Preventer commander.  
  
A sigh resonated from the speaker, "Oh come now, no chit chat? Oh well, I'm sure by now you've determined my location. My first demand is this; the general public doesn't know much, if anything about the Beehive, see that it stays that way. There's no need to start a panic."  
  
Lady Une narrowed her eyes and double checked to make sure the conversation was being recorded, it was. 'What's the point in that? Why would terrorists want to keep people from panicking?', she pondered. "We'll see what we can do", she answered, "But you must understand, we have certain policies that we have to follow; we can't keep everything from the public."  
  
"Oh, I'm sure you'll find a way", replied the self-confident, half mocking voice, "according to this you've done a fine job keeping that emergency, store of mobile suits a secret. A rather measly force over all, but still highly illegal by your own laws. But what I really love is how you hid them in the open; clever, no one would expect a working military force to be showcased in a museum, now would they?"  
  
This situation was new; never before had she come across a situation quite like this. First, the enemy wasn't trying to incite a panic; second, the enemy had somehow been able to find out some of the most confidential information the Preventers held. It was true, they purposely kept most of the mobile suits displayed in certain museums in almost full operating condition.  
  
"As for demand number two", the voice continued, "I'll be sending you a list of certain supplies and individuals I would also like delivered to said locations"  
  
"You should be well aware that we aren't about to give you more hostages to bargain with", interjected the firm and cool headed brunette.  
  
"They aren't hostages, neither will I be bargaining with them, nor should you be concerned. At least consider my offer. I doubt that you want to see what I'm capable of doing with the Beehive.", the voice paused for a moment as Lady Une considered the threat, "Oh, one last word of warning. Any attempt to infiltrate or attack this facility will be met with resistance. Don't throw away the lives of your men."  
  
The connection ceased leaving Lady Une to ponder the unusual demands. The moment was short lived however, and she was soon issuing orders to agents worldwide.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
AN: I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. Things should really begin to pick up from this point on. Please give a review. 


	7. The Honey of the Bees

AN: Sorry for the amount of time it took me to get this chapter up. Much of it was do to procrastination but it also took me time to get the direct quotations from Relena's speech. Hopefully you'll enjoy it.  
  
The Beehive  
  
Chapter 7: The Honey of the Bees  
  
DATE: February 18, 203 AC LOCATION: An old hanger commandeered by the Preventers  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 11:49 AM ~*~*~  
  
It loomed over his head, 17.4 meters over his head to be precise. The old hanger in which WuFei stood were full of old suits that were taken out of museums - all of which had to be closed for 'public safety' - and were under restoration. This one however, seemed particularly ominous. Zechs was on Mars, so its not likely he'd get upset, but still, the idea of piloting Tallgeese 3 made WuFei feel uneasy, like he was stealing. He had no choice though, he was probably the best pilot in the Earth Sphere that wasn't about seven years out of practice, and so he had to pilot it.  
  
WuFei turned to look around at the many people and engineers that were refitting these old war machines with the few essential cockpit components that were taken out of all of them. Besides Tallgeese there were some Leo Suits, a few Aries, a couple of White Taurus, a Tragos and a Virgo that had no mobile doll computer or cockpit.  
  
"I don't think we'll be able to get that one in working condition in time", an approaching engineer, gesturing to the Virgo, reported.  
  
"Hmph... just as well", replied the still somewhat distant Chinese man, "Just do what you can. As long as all the others are done I don't think it will make too much of a difference."  
  
"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" sounded the small communicator at WuFei's waist.  
  
Immediately, WuFei brought the small box-like device to his mouth and clicked it on, "Five hear."  
  
"WuFei", Sally's voice sounded through the communicator, "the guests have arrived."  
  
"I'll be right there", replied the younger Preventer. He turned to the engineer, "Get as much done as you can.", he gestured at Tallgeese, "and be sure to restore the mega cannon; we'll probably end up needing it."  
  
"Yes sir", replied the engineer as the two men walked off in different directions.  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 12:03 PM ~*~*~  
  
WuFei entered the meeting room. It wasn't a particularly large meeting room, it was more of a lounge really. It had dark blue carpeting and white walls - both of which had stains speckled about them - and a round table with a coffee pot in the center and chairs around it. In the chairs were five individuals, Sally Po, two other Preventers, and the former Gundam Pilot's Duo Maxwell and Trowa Barton. Off on a table in the corner, two other Preventers and the former Gundam Pilot Quatre Winner were intensely studying a mess of papers and photos.  
  
"Hey, WuFei", Duo turned around to greet the new arrival; superficially he sounded cheery but upon closer examination it was clear that he was just masking extreme anxiety, "glad you made it. Long time no see. Now when Heero gets here could someone please explain to me what the Hell is going on. You people only call us when something big is up, so let's have it."  
  
"That's the problem", WuFei sighed, "Heero isn't coming."  
  
With that, the heads of the two other pilots instantly snapped around upon hearing this news.  
  
"But...", Quatre began, somewhat worried "I thought that Miss Relena was taken hostage?"  
  
"Yeah", Duo cut in, "he's always the first to step up to the plate whenever she's in trouble. What's up?"  
  
"Heero was with President Darlian when she was abducted", Sally answered coolly, "His current whereabouts are unknown though. He was either killed or taken hostage with the president."  
  
"Either way", dryly-interjected WuFei, "It's not likely that he's made it this long."  
  
Trowa simply stared at WuFei silently, Quatre sunk his head while Duo looked into nothingness trying to fully soak in what WuFei just said. It was hard for any of them to believe that that guy could be killed but there seemed to be an element of truth to WuFei's uncomfortable speculation.  
  
"No...", Quatre silently assured himself, "No, there's no way he could have died so easily; I just know he made it, somehow. I can feel it."  
  
Duo gulped to try and force a deep sense of loss back down to his stomach, "You're right Quatre", Duo tried his best but it still wasn't that convincing, "he's gotta still be alive." Realizing that he was acting completely out of character he found the strength to paste his patented smile back on and add one more thing, "I'm mean, near as I know he hasn't even gotten laid yet." The braided man hoped they'd buy into his optimism; the last thing he needed was for everyone to be depressed.  
  
Trowa was still silent; he had accepted what WuFei had suggested as a complete and total possibility. He didn't see a need to argue with the other two on this, though; there was nothing wrong with hope. His cold green eyes stared into WuFei's, transmitting his conclusion to his Asian comrade.  
  
Apparently WuFei got it. "Hn... guess you're right"  
  
"Hopefully", Sally interrupted, "But whether he's alive or not we can't expect any help from him." Sally's blue sphere's turned up to WuFei just to reconfirm that he wasn't deluding himself like the other two; his stern expression was all the answer she needed.  
  
"So, it's just a bunch of terrorists with mobile dolls?" Duo was back to Mr. Confident, "this'll be a synch."  
  
"I wish it were that simple", interrupted Quatre, "these appear to be a new model; we don't have any idea what their capabilities are."  
  
"So, the Darter corporation was able to design a new weapon right under the Preventers' noses", Trowa assessed, "The question is, how?"  
  
"We believe they may have used a government funded research program called The Beehive Project as a cover", answered the blond Chinese woman.  
  
"So wait a second", Duo interrupted, "Since when are my tax dollars going to help make honey."  
  
A Preventer named Todd, sitting next to Duo but in, "It isn't about honey bees, ya bloomin fool, it has to do with nano-bot."  
  
"Hey, chill out man", Duo shot back, "I didn't know, OK"  
  
"Well maybe if you would have read the documents that..."  
  
"That's enough!", Quatre cut Todd off, "We have enough to worry about right now."  
  
"Indeed", WuFei agreed.  
  
"You've all been brought here because you're the best pilots we could find." Sally informed, "We're currently restoring a small force of mobile suits, which we commandeered from several museums. We wanted to ask you if you'd be willing to participate in our assault."  
  
Trowa nodded his head, silently agreeing, "So, is there anything else we should know?"  
  
"Yeah", Sally hesitantly answered, "Yeah, it's about the Beehive."  
  
"The Beehive is a big supercomputer which was supposed to be used to direct the actions of specially made nano-bots called Bees." WuFei cut in, knowing he was tactless enough to give it to them straight, "Apparently, they managed to make that too. It was supposed to be used for medical purposes but the Darter Corporation found a way to use it in mobile suits. What we know for sure is that these mobile suits are capable of self-repair on the battlefield but whether that's the extent that the Bees can be used is not known. The terrorists have already threatened, that they can use the Beehive in other ways."  
  
"So?", Duo inquired, "They're just a bunch of microscopic machines; why are you so worried?"  
  
"Have you ever upset a hornet's nest, Duo?", Trowa answered calmly before WuFei could get sound out, "It's because they're microscopic that makes them dangerous. It's hard to fight something that's too small to target."  
  
"I see...", Duo trailed off as he began to realize what Trowa was getting at.  
  
"So, are you in or out?", WuFei asked, his arms folded across his chest as he seemed to almost glare at his braided companion.  
  
"Hmm... Well, Hilde is due in four months so I can't go throwing my life away." the chestnut haired man assessed.  
  
"If you don't want to, we don't want you to feel like you have to", Sally assured him, "but we could always use your help."  
  
"Well", Duo's mood was becoming less somber, "I guess that the God of Death could always make a comeback."  
  
"And you Quatre?" Sally's head turned around to face the blonde Arab.  
  
"You bet I'll fight", Quatre hastily replied, "If this continued it could throw the whole Earth Sphere into another war."  
  
"Speaking of which", cut in the man of an exceptionally large, reddish brown bang, "Who is the Darter Corporation supporting?"  
  
"We don't know", Sally reluctantly admitted.  
  
Trowa, surprised by this, turned back around to face the blonde Chinese woman, "Didn't they identify themselves or make any demands?"  
  
"They made some demands", a reluctant WuFei answered.  
  
The heads of the three other former gundam pilots, along with several Preventers, turned to face WuFei in curiosity. They studied the way he wouldn't look directly at him, he seemed to be struggling to reveal the answer.  
  
"They've asked for three things", continued the Chinese Preventer, "They want some raw materials delivered to them, they want the Beehive to be kept a secret from the public and they sent a list of people they want delivered to them."  
  
"Man, I can understand the raw materials but to keep it a secret from the public? I thought they were terrorists." jumped in the braided pilot.  
  
"It gets weirder", commented Sally.  
  
WuFei sighed and continued, "The people they want... they're nobodies." He stopped himself and started over, "No, that's not true. They're all criminals."  
  
"Criminals?" repeated Quatre.  
  
"Heinous criminals", WuFei confirmed, "murderers and rapists mostly & a few war criminals and terrorists as well."  
  
"Is there any link between them", Trowa's piercing green eyes searched WuFei for an answer.  
  
WuFei's answer was quick and to the point, "Other than the fact that a more practical government executed the lot of them, no"  
  
Even Trowa, with his well-oiled strategic mind was having trouble trying to figure this out. Everyone else was hopelessly lost.  
  
"So, are they trying to test the limits of their power or something?" Trowa guessed; uncertainty saturated his tone.  
  
"No", Quatre replied shaking his head, "There would be much more productive ways to test their power then asking for criminals. They obviously need them for something or else they wouldn't be demanding them."  
  
"It really doesn't matter", WuFei cut in, "We'll bee attacking tomorrow morning at 0800."  
  
"Well, this everyone who's going to be in the attack?" Duo questioned; his eyes darted back and forth examining the room of nine.  
  
"There'll be others", Sally assured them, "We just haven't picked them out yet."  
  
"Guess I better claim a suit then quick then", a more cheerful looking Duo replied, "We don't want the amateurs getting something they can't handle."  
  
While several of the other Preventers suppressed the urge to punch Duo in the shoulder, WuFei led the party out of the meeting room. Most of the pilots were feeling a little better for some reason; Duo was always good at keeping morale, but all of them knew this wasn't going to be simple. Trowa, in particular, was hesitant to give up to hope. Something was bothering him about this whole situation; the enemy wasn't acting like any other he had ever encountered.  
  
LOCATION: The Beehive's Underground Facility  
  
~*~*~ TIME: Unknown ~*~*~  
  
There were no windows, no indication of what time it was, all they knew is when they were hungry, when they were thirsty, and when they needed rest. They're cybernetic host had been more then hospitable in providing them with supplies. The food wasn't the best but it was certainly palatable, there was a drinking fountain just outside the restroom and Tyler even went as far to provide them with two pillows and blankets. Neither of them felt comfortable letting both of their guards down at once so they decided to make sure at least one of them was awake at all times.  
  
'I never knew he could look so peaceful', she thought as she stared at the man lying down next to her, "resting his eyes". She felt sorry for him, he hadn't slept the whole time they were there - he must have felt it was his responsibility to stay awake - so he eventually just passed out from exhaustion. But it felt good, seeing that even he could be human at times and she couldn't resist the urge to hold his hand while he slept. She wanted to join him; even in their desperate situation she found fantasies of the two of them cuddling together comforting. The dim and eerie environment and chilling background noises made him look particularly inviting; she could swear she even herd blood curdling screams at times. She didn't dare do more then hold his hand though; they were being watched and it would have been too awkward if he woke up.  
  
"Oh don't let that stop you", this voice had become increasingly annoying as time went on, "Make it an executive order." The form of a man fused with machines lowered down from above, a smug grin pasted on its face. "I'm terribly sorry that I haven't had much time to chat", he continued, "I've been busy with research and the like; that can be so very time consuming, you know."  
  
There was a stern glare of discontent coming from the young woman on the platform, "Stop it!"  
  
Heero began to stir a bit; apparently Relena's harsh words shook him out of sleep and without warning he snapped up onto his feat, dazed and ready for trouble. Then, after taking a moment's pause to assess the padded platform, the endless expanses of mechanized vines and darkness, the pallid face of a not entirely impressed Tyler as well as the form of a remarkably stressed young woman, dressed in an unclean previously white suit (their cloths had dried out by now) he swiftly made the transition from confused Yuy to ready-to-kick-some-ass Yuy. Unfortunately, there was only one ass to kick and he knew he didn't stand a chance against him so he had to restrain himself to an empty death glare.  
  
"Oh really now, I think you two direct far too much anger in my direction" Tyler made a shrugging gesture, "I guess that's what comes with the war being over and all, have to take it out on me."  
  
The mood of the young president went from bad to worse, "Stop invading our thoughts! Don't you hold anything sacred? Can't we at least have privacy in our own minds?"  
  
"Don't I hold anything sacred?" Tyler seemed legitimately surprised but they could never tell with him, "Of course I hold things sacred, I hold peace sacred. That's why I'm doing this."  
  
"Peace? This is peace?" Relena had given many speeches and lectures similar to this - mostly during the war - but this was the most unusual case yet, "You've practically declared war on the Earth Sphere! How could this..."  
  
"Correction", interrupted a somewhat annoyed Tyler, "I prevented a war with the whole Earth Sphere. Now, I'm simply holding the world hostage until I'm finished with my research and in so doing, will have attained the peace that you were unable to."  
  
It seemed to Heero that it was finally his turn to say something; he wasn't sure exactly what happened while he was out but he certainly knew what was happening then. "She achieved peace Tyler. You're just like the Romerfeller Foundation; you try to conquer others under the pretense of peace."  
  
"Except", interjected their captor, "this isn't about peace by conquest. The goals of Relena Peacecraft and myself are exactly the same, total pacifism. The difference is, I haven't deluded myself into believing that humanity is biologically able to maintain it."  
  
"No, You're mist...", Relena began.  
  
"I know, 'I'm mistaken; peace isn't something that one achieves through battle and wars'", mocked the overconfident mad scientist. He looked as Heero, "'I'm the same a Milliardo Peacecraft, yada, yada, yada...' Except, not really. The problem with The White Fang's plan was that they failed to take into consideration that humanity forgets things as the generations die off. In fact, it only takes one generation to completely forget a way of life. Sure, everything is peaceful now, and for the first time in known history there's a world nation which advocates peaceful solutions rather then aggressive ones, but you and I both know that true peace has yet to be realized; the Preventers department's existence is proof of this. Heck, the Darter Corporation's plan itself shows that this is an imperfect peace. I only plan to rectify that situation."  
  
The two prisoners simply continued to glare; they weren't sure what to say. It was confusing, they've heard the speech before but the way he so adamantly denied association with that philosophy was puzzling.  
  
They really didn't have to say anything though, the main reason Tyler even gave them time to translate their thoughts into words was to humor them. "It's quite simple, the problem is humanity itself; it's self-centeredness, its primitive and inadequate methods of communication and most of all, its lack of a social consciousness. I simply desire to correct these errors; thus, making true peace possible. To do this though, humanity must be physically and mentally altered on mass; the question is, how. This", Tyler gestured to his left, where numerous vines and tentacles began moving out of Heero and Relena's line of sight, revealing three large roundish devices, "Is what will allow me to do it. I will turn all of humanity into a more perfect organism."  
  
"How in the world can you possibly believe that you can...", Relena began but couldn't think of the proper words to finish. She started over; more composed, more like a statesman, "This is a crime against nature"  
  
"A crime? No, no, no, this is nature at its very best. It's the ultimate evolution"  
  
"You're ideas about evolution are insane", a clearly upset Heero Yuy criticized, "Evolution happens naturally."  
  
"Natural selection happens naturally", Tyler corrected, "Modern day humans have effectively distanced themselves from natural selection, and thus humanity's evolution has all but halted. And even then, what does nature really favor? And is that favorable? What nature favors are the individuals that are able to produce the most offspring, not necessarily evolution when you consider how many babies the stupid give birth to compared to those that can actually support themselves. It's practically counter evolution. So I came to the conclusion that if humanity is going to progress in the direction that we generally deem as progress, we must take our evolution into our own hands."  
  
"Are you saying all of humanity should become...", she wasn't exactly sure what to say.  
  
"Cyborgs?", Tyler suggested. "Yes, that's precisely what I suggest. A new future requires a new humanity. Not made solely of weak flesh, randomly occurring amino acids and proteins but fused with the strength, endurance, and precise logic of metal and machinery. Not only that, everyone's mind will be united in a sort of collective social conscience, making war impossible. That's my eventual goal; peace is the very honey which the Beehive will help produce."  
  
"That's still nothing more the domination. You're a dictator forcing your ideals on others", Relena affirmed.  
  
"Or a parent, forcing their toddler to eat their vegetables", Tyler shot back, with absolute confidence and a tone that came off as uppity, "What the people want isn't necessarily what the people need. Most people wouldn't agree with my idea because they're afraid of change and they're self-serving, not because they actually understand our grandiose vision and disagree on respectable mental grounds."  
  
"Our?" Relena cocked her eyebrow a bit while her eyes narrowed; this was anything but her vision.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry", Tyler mocked; "These were your words right?"  
  
A slight clicking sound was herd followed by a flat screen being lowered into view. The screen displayed a fifteen-year-old Queen Relena Peacecraft - hair worn up and with a crown placed on top and wearing a long, white, fancy dress with a rose red sash - stepping up to the podium at the Romefeller Foundation's Parliament Building. Relena's speech resounded throughout the entire underground complex, "Everyone of you is a world leader. But in order to continue being the leaders of the world, the Romefeller Foundation must undergo some changes, in the same way that our times are currently changing. Why is there always confrontation? It's natural that whenever more then one person is involved the second person will be a potential source of conflict. In order to eliminate this we must become unified as one. I once again make a declaration, in order to eliminate boundaries and created one peaceful consolidated nation, Oz -which holds the most power - must be the first to discard all of its weapons.  
  
"When we talk of bringing the world together we must not limit it to the Earth alone. It only takes two the start a conflict; therefore we must become one with the space colonies. The Earth must learn to coexist with outer space and outer space must do the same. We must disarm Oz and appeal to the people in outer space. I ask each on of you as world leaders to accept these changes."  
  
Tyler simply beamed an unsettling smirk, his pale palms briefly colliding in slow steady rhythms, sending harsh snapping sound waves though the entire complex. "I couldn't have said it better myself"  
  
Heero and Relena both remembered her speech to the Romefeller Foundation quite distinctly; mainly because Heero had a gun pointed at her head throughout the entire speech, just in case the executives weren't receptive to Relena's ideas.  
  
"That wasn't what Relena meant!" exclaimed a particularly upset Heero.  
  
"What's the difference?" Tyler immediately replied.  
  
Relena shook her head a bit, he frizzed golden ponytail violently shaking with her head motions, "You can't force people to accept pacifism Tyler; they have to accept it themselves."  
  
"But that's what I'm doing, you see. With the collective conscience that will be created, a collective will, will form. With a collective will, all of humanity will act as a single body rather then separate individuals, making conflict within the human race impossible." Tyler seemed to be frustrated but it was hard to tell.  
  
"And what about the people that don't want to be turned into mindless machines; like us" demanded Heero.  
  
"Cyborgs", corrected an exasperated Tyler, "and people will only seem like mindless slaves to the casual viewer. I predict that the enhanced communication capabilities, coupled with the collective will of the rest of the human race would turn the most wily of rebels into an efficient, peaceful and productive member of society; or so my theory goes."  
  
"Tyler, you're mistaken!" retorted the somewhat upset and reasonable intimidated politician. Though slightly cracked, she still maintained her strong political mask; "You're going to throw away innocent lives on a theory? What happens if you find out you're wrong."  
  
"If my memory reserves serve me correctly, Miss Relena Peacecraft", began a smug, slightly angry Tyler - that last statement hit him pretty hard actually, "you risked the lives of everyone in the Sanc Kingdom on the futile theory that you could achieve pacifism by simply bitching a lot. Then, furthermore, betrayed those that fought to protect your glass kingdom by becoming Romefeller's Chief Representative, including a certain enamoring individual who shall remain nameless", One of Tyler's circuit- filled eyes sent a wink her way, accompanied by a crooked smile. "I don't suspect to many people will die. The first phase of my plan is to unleash clouds of Bees on the major population centers of the world, to immobilize the people and begin the assimilation processes. Humans can't easily defend themselves against the microscopic so I predict that the loss of life will be minimal."  
  
Relena couldn't help but let her eyes wonder to Heero for a moment just to see how he had reacted to Tyler's comment.  
  
His Expression was unaffected; the fact that Relena was infatuated with him wasn't a new concept. "That's not the same thing", Heero affirmed defensively, "It was the Romefeller Foundation that was the threat, not her. This is just some ego trip for you isn't it?" goaded the fearless Japanese bodyguard, "You're worse then the Romefeller Foundation, you're trying to conquer just so you can say you're better then everyone else." He tensed up, waiting for some kind of reaction.  
  
For a moment, Tyler couldn't help but consider sending a spiked tentacle through his adversary's torso to silence him; the thought of seeing the look on his face as he realized just how useless and futile his pathetic acts of protection towards that little whore of his really were. Something happened though, pain, it wasn't real pain, it was more the anticipation of pain; heart ache like none he had ever felt; for a millisecond, his entire world shattered leaving him in a tearfully void existence of depression. As soon as it had begun though, he was back, his face glaring at his intended victim. He decided to stay the attack and then the data flow from the computer showed him that Heero had intended him to loose his cool anyway, so it was better off this way.  
  
"Relena single-handedly brought peace to this world and she's going to keep it peaceful. If you really wanted peace you'd realize this"  
  
Tyler couldn't help but cackle out loud at this, "Oh really now soldier, you give the girl far to much credit. Tell me, what exactly did Relena do? What exactly does Relena do that no one else could? Promote total pacifism? A toddler could think of that, it wasn't even her own idea. Ms. Darlian, I'm afraid, as pure in intent as she seems to be is merely a product of luck."  
  
"At least she has the courage to do it", countered Heero.  
  
"Touché, my not entirely oriental friend. Guts she does have; it borders on being stupid, even."  
  
"I'm not your friend" dryly responded an endlessly annoyed and exhausted Heero.  
  
"Oh be nice", Tyler mocked, he even went as far to drop his hand in a feminine manner, half laughing at the reaction he was getting from Heero.  
  
"Quit it!" snapped the overly aggravated young woman in question. "Tyler", she paused a moment to organize her thoughts, "Tyler, I think I understand what you're trying to do but please stop; this is total madness. I promise that if you end this now you won't be jailed."  
  
"No, I can't stop now, the Beehive's conception demanded such a pinnacle change in humanity's course of evolution. Unless humanity is able to truly achieve peace, I cannot in good conscience, allow the Beehive to exist", Tyler Asserted.  
  
The solution seemed simple to Relena, "Then just get rid of it."  
  
"But don't you understand? This is the most significant technological advancement in modern history. This single advancement alone will alter destiny forever. You seem to not understand exactly what you're telling me to destroy."  
  
"This isn't worth it Tyler. You can't..." Relena was cut off.  
  
"Oh, and how were you're peace plans meant to work?" snapped an impatient Tyler. "The only way for you're total pacifism to work is if everyone whole-heartedly accepted the idea. What you propose is essentially the same thing as myself, except you're under the delusion that humanity's desire for peace will remain consolidated on its own. We're after exactly the same thing, the difference; I actually have the aptitude to do it. And again, you don't seem to understand what you're giving up. The Beehive is capable of almost anything, its like having trillions of microscopic construction workers at your command; with this technology, humanity could remodel the Earth itself. Don't you understand?"  
  
He really didn't need to wait for an answer, even if he couldn't read their thoughts their faces would have been enough.  
  
"No, I guess not. Pity." He sighed and continued, "At any rate, we'll continue this discussion later, I have things to do. I'd offer to upgrade the two of you but I already know you'll refuse. It's a shame too; we'd already be done with this argument if we could abandon this crude verbal communication." The mechanical hands hoisting him up began carrying him away but then he stopped for a moment, "and by the way, Relena. Do try to figure out what you really want. Do you want true peace or do you just not want to fight? There's a big difference." With that last taunting remark, he soon disappeared into a sea of machinery.  
  
After a moment of silence Heero felt it behooved him to say something comforting, "Don't let that crack pot get to you."  
  
Relena, however, remained silent, lost in her own thoughts. Could Tyler really be right? Could this really be the way to attain true peace? No, Heero was right; she can't let him get to her. It would be nothing but a new type of fake peace, one that no one could escape from. Now, all she had to do is figure out how to convince Tyler. 


	8. The Assault

AN: Sorry this chapter took so long to write. Aside from some other factors, which hindered my progress, I had a case of writer's block when I got to the fight scene.  
  
The Beehive  
  
Chapter 8: The Assault  
  
DATE: February 19, 203 AC LOCATION: The Beehive's Underground Facility  
  
~*~*~ TIME: Unknown ~*~*~  
  
"Where are you leading us?" Her voice echoed through the dark hallways, directed at the man ahead of them.  
  
Tyler walked ahead of them at a steady, mechanical pace; his feet making a resounding thump with each step - due to the extra weight his implants added. Both of them had a clear view of the back of his head, where bone was fused with metal and a mass of wires fed from his scull to a device on his back. "You wanted to know how I was planning on fulfilling my ideals and so I'm going to show you." He stopped and directed their attention to a door, which soon slid open. "Through this room is a marvelous super computer of my own design", he explained, "It will allow me to make the calculations and examine my test subjects."  
  
"Test subjects?" inquired Relena.  
  
"Don't worry, not you two", he assured them, "now look, if that is what you truly desire. I warn you though, you'll likely not find the image pleasant."  
  
Relena stepped into the room, braced for the worse. Upon entering she gasped out loud as her expression shifted to that of disgust. She cupped her hands over her gaping mouth and backed out, her cerulean blue eyes stayed wide, unable to divert themselves from the horror they beheld.  
  
Heero stepped in, to see what the matter was; his face shown with disgust.  
  
The room's contents were that of people, former people at least. Now, they were more infused with machinery then Tyler himself. Each individual suspended in a capsule of wires and circuits, all of which feeding into their heads and bodies. They were all naked, completely shaven and pasty white. None appeared to be conscious but occasionally one would death twitch.  
  
"You bastard", Heero commented.  
  
Tyler had to protest, "Oh really, it's not that bad."  
  
"Are they..?", Relena began.  
  
"Dead?", Tyler finished for her, "No. Well, scratch that, they might as well be; I've simply linked their brains together to form a type of supercomputer and database. I can look into every aspect of their memory - even the ones they couldn't consciously recall themselves - and I have complete control over their brain's operations. Many of them were scientists that I captured along with you two, people involved in rather unscrupulous research, at best. This guy for example", a tendril shot out of Tyler's arm to point at one of the pods on the second level, "was responsible for the invention of YO-448, a biological weapon."  
  
"Are you trying to justify this to us or yourself?" jeered a very disturbed Heero. Though, he had seen plenty of awful things during the war, he had yet to see anything quite like this.  
  
"Hmph", snorted the annoyed cyborg.  
  
"Tyler", Relena was still trying to reason with him, "please, this doesn't make any of this right. I'm not trying to justify their actions but don't you see, what your doing isn't any better."  
  
"To defeat the devil, one must become the devil himself", Tyler retorted. "You're the one who doesn't seem to have a clear view on things; in order to achieve a true peace, all of this is necessary. You said it yourself; to achieve peace we must unite as one; to do that, the will of all humanity must be consolidated and to do that we have to fix the basics - the basics being the fundamental nature of humanity."  
  
"No, Tyler", Relena shot back, "people can come to an understanding by talking things out. None of this is necessary."  
  
"You've already tried that, it didn't work. The proof is all around you."  
  
Frustrated by her old friend's tenacity she clenched her fist and tried to come up with a new angle to try and persuade Tyler with. She stopped, however, when one of the figures in a capsule caught her eye, "Oh, my god! Is that Mr. Almond?"  
  
"And Mr. Darter, right next to him", confirmed Tyler. "Oh, spare me your speeches. Mr. Almond was the one behind the whole accounting scandal, you know"  
  
Heero and Relana's heads turned in surprise.  
  
"They were in cahoots the whole time", he continued, "They would conquer the Earth Sphere using the Beehive technology and make themselves rulers. Of course, they needed more funding then what the government allotted, so they borrowed a few here, a few more there, until you got that report on your desk five days ago. Of course by then it was too late; that is, if it wasn't for me. What do you say?"  
  
Heero's middle finger was his response.  
  
A tentacle shot out of Tyler's back device and snapped its metal jaws mere centimeters away from Heero's finger. "Careful their, you wouldn't want that getting cut off, now would you? And I'll have to refuse. I appreciate your offer but I don't swing that way", Tyler put on a wicked smirk at his own joke and retracted the claw.  
  
"Why are you doing this Tyler", Relena shook her head in despair, "It's clear you're not after wealth or power so why?"  
  
"Why, I thought we had already been over this princess", ridiculed the pale man, "To fulfill your ideals, in creating a world of true peace. Your speech to the Romefeller Foundation made quite an impression on me. I was shocked to learn that your mind was capable of even beginning to comprehend what true peace would curtail; I had been under the impression that your mind was only capable of calculating how to use people to serve your own interests. I had even gone as far as to examine your DNA to see if I could determine how inbreed you are."  
  
That angered Heero significantly, "What!?"  
  
Tyler shrugged, "well she is royalty. Turns out her genes aren't as stacked as I initially predicted. That certainly doesn't stop her from using people like us though, does it?"  
  
"Tyler, that happened a long time ago", a very emotionally distressed Relena protested, "I'm not proud of what I did. And I really didn't want to hurt you like..."  
  
"Yes, I know", cut in the maniacal cyborg, "but the fact remains, you only struck up a conversation with me to use me; get me to tutor you. The fact that you found my friendship to be more real then that of your other friends is irrelevant compared to the fact that you would have never even talked to me if you weren't planning to throw me aside once you were done in the first place. You used me, just like you used him", he motioned to Heero.  
  
"Tyler, I don't use Heero!", she practically screeched, that was a low blow as far as she was concerned. "Just because you're smart doesn't give you a right to mock us like this!"  
  
"Just because you're little miss queen of the world by birthright, without ever doing a damn thing to deserve the title doesn't mean you know best. You were handed life on a silver platter, you barely had to do anything to make it this far. All you've ever done is preach an ineffective concept you borrowed from your daddy and sit back while the rest of the world does all the dirty work for you. If it wasn't for this, and a handful of other people you used - your brother included - Romefeller would have killed you long ago. You're nothing more then a face that sweet-talks the people.  
  
"So, you say all this is unnecessary to achieve peace? How about you try getting something done yourself for a change. Just, don't come back and bitch at me about right and wrong if you can't do it."  
  
His words were a javelin, which he buried deep into Relena's heart; Tyler had known exactly what to say. Secretly, she had always been sensitive about that very fact, she was always the one being saved. A heated anger boiled its way to her face; a small tear began to well in eye socket. "SHUT UP!"  
  
"Or what?", asked a particularly pompous Tyler, "What could you possibly do to me?"  
  
At about that time Heero came in with a right jag directed at the cyborg's scull. The fist made full contact, but due to the metal pieces reinforcing Tyler's skeletal structure Tyler came out almost undamaged while Heero's knuckles felt like they hit a brick wall.  
  
A self-satisfied smirk stretched across Tyler's face, "And this time, your little Heero won't be able to bale you out. These particular implants were initially designed for battle. Like it or not, this is the only way the dream which you claim to advocate can become reality; and like it or not, as soon as the test subject arrive my experimentation will commence."  
  
"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Heero grunted through his teeth, still cradling his fist.  
  
"I'm emptying the prison system of its most wicked residents; that's what I mean", explained Tyler. "Once the Preventers give in to my demands I'll receive my shipments. I figure; if I unify the worst of humanity, I'll have succeeded."  
  
"They aren't going to", Relena stated with confidence.  
  
"No", replied Tyler, "I'm sure they will. First they'll attack this place but once they witness my power they'll have no choice but to submit. Right now, we're playing a game of chicken; whoever blinks first is defeated. The catch is, I have nothing to lose and whether you want to believe it or not, societal scum is a small price to pay."  
  
Some unknown sensations seemed to surprise Tyler a bit and he paused for a moment; the sound of moving machinery soon followed. "Speak of the devil", he commented.  
  
"What now?" the furious bodyguard grumbled.  
  
Tyler smiled invitingly, "They've started an attack; care to watch?"  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 8:00 AM ~*~*~  
  
The small, ragtag fleet advanced across the desert. The Tallgeese - piloted by WuFei - was in the lead, followed by two White Taurus - piloted by Trowa and Quatre. Duo was using a Leo that had been refitted with the advanced mobile option for flight. The attack squad also consisted of three Aries and four additional Leos - one of which piloted by Sally.  
  
It seemed as though the only thing in the way of the Preventers and the Beehive Facility was a sun baked desert road and miles of golden sand.  
  
"I'm not seeing anything yet", announce WuFei. "Maybe I should just charge in ahead of you; get this over with quick."  
  
"Negative", Replied Sally, "We know for sure that they have a new model of mobile dolls at their disposal and we don't know what else."  
  
The Chinese pilot snorted a bit; Tallgeese 3 was the fastest and most powerful mobile suit left on Earth, so even if the enemy did have some kind of trap planned he'd be the best candidate to set it off. Still he knew he had to follow orders; it was what he hated most about not going it alone, like he did in the old days.  
  
"Oh come on", Duo cut in, "It can't be that bad; it's just a laboratory."  
  
"No Duo, Sally is right. We have to proceed cautious..." Quatre was cut off when several tentacles burst out of the arid ground beneath him, crashing into and constricting several of the suits around him. One wrapped itself around the leg of his Taurus while at the same time a beam cannon turret popped out of the ground and began picking off the constrained suits.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"You see", explained Tyler, "Mobile suits are versatile but they have the same basic weakness as a human; if their limbs are constrained they're helpless." His voice became very haughty at that point, "So I figured, the best way to have an advantage in mobile suit combat is to have additional limbs. Quite ingenious if I do say so myself."  
  
"Tyler, I beg you, please stop this", Relena protested.  
  
Tyler retorted with a small snort, "Tell them to stop, they've come to kill me"  
  
Relena shook her head, "No, they came to save me."  
  
"And I'm not going to give you up so they're going to do it by force; just like any other government would", Tyler's smirk bowed back up again.  
  
Relena gasped in frustration.  
  
Heero, however, had been looking around his surrounding when he noticed that there were some discarded metal bars nearby. 'These could be used as a weapon', he thought. Tyler appeared to be too busy to notice him, so it was worth a shot.  
  
Tyler continued his pretentious rant, "So, I never really came up with a name for these new mobile dolls. Of course, they just have to be named after a constellation, that's standard"  
  
'That's right, just keep talking', Heero silently mocked as he carefully lifted up one of the bars and hid it behind his back.  
  
"Hm... How about Sagittarius? I like that name. What do you think, Ms. Darlian?"  
  
Relena grabbed the side of her face like she was trying to tear something off of it, "I don't care what you name the damn things; I just want you to get rid of them"  
  
Tyler let out a fake gasp, pretending that he was shocked and appauled by the blonde's language. "My, my, my... you such language, from the president of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation too. How ever do you live with yourself?"  
  
The frizz in Relena's poorly groomed, golden hair seemed to literally double in her aggravated state; her frustration, fatigue and anxiety radiated from her cerulean glare; all of which seemed to explode out of her mouth in a single phrase, "JUST SHUT THE HELL UP TYLER!!!"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
BOOM! A stream of yellow burned through the head of an Aries. SHING! A nearby Leo loses its legs.  
  
Quatre frantically pressed the throttle of his Taurus as he viewed the cannon taking aim at his suit, but he couldn't break free. Just then, a series of short beams cut a line through the line holding Quatre's suit, across the sand and to the small cannon that had been targeting him.  
  
"They're underground", Trowa confirmed, in case anyone had trouble figuring that out.  
  
"Thank you Trowa", Quatre responded, very relieved. 'How could I have been so stupid?', he silently berated himself, 'We're in the desert, the Maguanac Corps used this tactic all the time'  
  
Quatre looked around for a moment to examine the situation. Besides the suit that had grabbed him - which was emerging from the sandy ground - there were three others. Two of which, Sally and WuFei were fending off while Duo and the other remaining suits were fighting the third.  
  
That initial strike had been devastating, Quatre noticed that another Aries and another Leo had been crippled by one of the other three suits and could notice some visible damages on many of the still functioning ones. Their forces were down to seven. If they were going to win this, they couldn't lose another suit. They knew that the enemy had a lot more of these suits and they could be anywhere.  
  
WuFei, beam saber out, chained one of the mobile dolls he was facing with Tallgees' heat rod, while Sally pelted it with shots from a dopper gun. The suit fell on its back, maimed by the barrage, and WuFei turned his attention to the second suit. The Tallgeese opened its back vernier rockets and a bright blue flame ruptured out, propelling it, shield first, into the second suit, throwing it off balance. After it crashed into the sand WuFei was quick to drive the fiery pink energy blade into its frame.  
  
The remaining Aries unloaded a missile pod on the suit Duo was facing, each rocket bursting to flames on its back, disjointing one of its arms. Duo tossed aside the beam rifle his Leo carried and opted for the beam saber. The Mobile doll swung its remaining, clawed arm at Duo's Leo but the advanced mobile gear provided the extra booster power needed for Duo to dodge the intended blow. A beam cannon opened up on its belling but a barrage of bullets from one of the support Leo's machine gun maimed it before it could do any damage. Duo then directed the full power of the additional rockets to ram his Leo into the opponent - much the same way WuFei did - and cut a deep fissure down the center of the doll. However, Duo didn't anticipate that the Doll had another tentacle port at its disposal, which took advantage of the two suit's intimacy by launching into the Leo's chest. A horror-struck scream was heard over the intercom but was soon cut off as the, thin, spiked tentacle popped out of the Leo's head. There was no explosion; the two suits just fell together, as if they were a pair of poorly balanced dolls. A cloud of sand kicked up where they landed.  
  
"Duo!", Quatre cried as it finally registered that it was his suit; his Taurus thrust to the side, dodging one of the tentacle's strikes. His grief turned to anger, focused into his beam rifle as he and Trowa pelted their target with one last barrage.  
  
That wasn't the end though, another yellow beam cut across Trowa's line of sight, it came from the distance; another followed it, from the other side. They had been surrounded; all around them more of these gigantic monkey- like suits had emerged from the sands and had begun showering them from all sides.  
  
"We have to retreat", Trowa announced, "We'll be picked off if we stay here."  
  
"Agreed", Sally replied, "bring everyone you can back with you. WuFei, cover our retreat."  
  
"Right", replied WuFei as he charged the Tallgeese mega cannon. He unleashed the massive wave of energy to the flank, tearing apart two of the suits that had cut off there retreat. Before following, however, he cut Duo's Leo free from the enemy suit - which had already begun to repair itself - and took it under his arm. With Duo's presumed coffin in hand, he let lose one more cascade of burning doom from the mega cannon and retreated, full force.  
  
The mission was a failure, a failure of the worst kind.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
"That's it?" Tyler was aghast, "That's all the mighty Gundam force could muster? That's pathetic; I didn't even get to use my nano-weapons." He turned to his two stunned guests in an over exaggerated pout, "But I did get to make my point, don't you think?" The screen that they had been watching the battle on went blank.  
  
Heero charged forward, muscles prepped, target set, his cobalt eye flared with fury, completely focused. An imaginary corsairs seemed to encompass the cyborg's head as the bar tore a path to Tyler's skull.  
  
Tyler was quick though, one of the back tentacle weapons shot out and caught the three foot pole.  
  
"Careful hotshot", mocked Tyler, "These implants were originally designed for fighting; you don't stand a chance without a gun."  
  
"Let him go!", screamed Relena.  
  
Heero's hand was released while Tyler took the bar in his hands and broke it in two with the aching sound of bending metal, "I really shouldn't leave these lying around, now should I?"  
  
Heero was blind with rage "How many did you kill?"  
  
"None; that I know of", replied Tyler, "I took care not to hurt the pilots if I could. Now, that was just to disappointing though, there was no sport in it whatsoever", Tyler continued his rant, "all the better I guess, though. They have to give in to my demands now"  
  
"Bastard", responded Heero.  
  
"Oh really now Heero, I don't think we're that different at all. We both fight for peace after all; the only differences are that I actually have a plan for after the fighting ends and I don't have the blood of the innocent on my hands"  
  
Heero growled something inaudible.  
  
"Did I lie?" chided Tyler, "Here let me pull up some records for you: Lieutenant Whiler, 20 years old, graduated head of his class in high school; Private Charleston, 18 years old, new recruit finally got his first assignment; Lieutenant Broom, 32 years old, doctor, mother of two children; the list goes on. What do all these people have in common? According to records they all perished in a Gundam attack by Gundam 01 in the opening stages of the war. How about you look at yourself before you villainies me? Hm..?  
  
"Now come; back to your confinement, it's meal time and I think and I've had the cafeteria chef prepare pancakes"  
  
"Chef?", Relena asked.  
  
"Where do you think your food was coming from, blondy ?", Replied Tyler, "What else was I supposed to do with the innocent employees that worked here?"  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
AN: This chapter wasn't as long as the others but I got everything done I wanted to. Hopfully the next chapter won't take so long to write. 


	9. Decisions

AN: Finally, another chapter is up. I really don't have much to report here except that I hope that I hope I can get the next up before school starts up again (I've been planning it out since late May). Enjoy and please read and review.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters or aspects of the story related to it. I am not making any money off of this fanfiction I'm just writing it for fun. However, if you are content a sue me, I must warn you that you'd probably spend more on the lawyer then you'd get from me.  
  
The Beehive  
  
Chapter 9: Decisions  
  
DATE: February 19, 203 AC LOCATION: Preventer's Base Camp Hospital, Quarantine  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 6:00 PM ~*~*~  
  
"So, He's all right?" Quatre's face brightened as he as he heard the doctor's report. It had been the first time the man had smiled in any way since the attack party had returned in retreat.  
  
"Yes, he should be fine", the doctor replied, while his eyes continued rolling over the document on his clipboard. "He got pretty cut up by shrapnel and he has a few small burns but overall he's pretty lucky."  
  
The green-eyed man, with the impressively molded hair, in the corner, tilted his head up and glared at the doctor, searching for any sign of uneasiness, "Then, why wasn't anyone allowed to see him before?"  
  
The Doctor lifted his square head up and adjusted his glasses, "First, because we hadn't scanned him for foreign bodies yet. Second, he started getting jumpy and erratic so we had to sedate him; he seems to have calmed down though."  
  
"Oh", the circle of the blond Arab's mouth lazily hung for a few moments as he processed, "But he's all right now though, right?"  
  
The medical doctor's face remained unchanged but a hint of cheer could be detected in his voice "Yes, Mr. Winner" With that, he placed his clipboard under his arm and began to walking to another section of the large medical tent. He was stopped, however, when WuFei stomped out from behind some curtains on a warpath, wearing a light blue hospital gown.  
  
"Where are my cloths?" He demanded, anger and impatience tainted his voice but he was trying to control it.  
  
The doctor's gaze met WuFei's glaring Chinese eyes. "They're still in decon", he answered, "We have to make absolute sure that you pilots aren't carrying any nano-bots. Now, have you been completely examined?"  
  
"Yes", WuFei weakly, resentfully, lamented.  
  
The feminine snicker of Sally rang through the tent, "Don't give the poor guy trouble WuFei, it's a tough job."  
  
WuFei's attention was turned to his superior as he was reminded of that morning's battle. He had to control himself though, he was talking to a ranking officer, "Why did you give the order to retreat? I could have defeated them"  
  
Sally's expression turned both serious and aggravated, she was in lecture mode, "That's the problem right there, you always think you can handle everything yourself. You need to learn when to retreat WuFei; we would have been annihilated if we stayed in that crossfire and we're lucky enough as it is; not a single pilot was killed."  
  
"Sally made the correct choice for everyone, WuFei", Quatre cut in, "Now calm down"  
  
WuFei growled a bit while clenching his fists, "I don't like running away", he grumbled.  
  
"Think of it as regrouping", suggested Sally. "Now listen, Duo is ready to see visitors so why don't we see him? We're lucky he isn't dead, so look on the bright side."  
  
A nearby, white curtain partially slid open and a bandaged up Duo Maxwell stumbled out from behind it, sporting the same light blue hospital gown as WuFei. "Somebody call?" he asked, sounding as jolly as someone could in his condition. His body was covered with minor scratches; there was a visible bump on the left of his forehead and some stitches were on his right cheek and his right arm was completely wrapped in a large bandage from his elbow to his wrist.  
  
"Duo", Quatre greeted as he hurried over to try and help his friend.  
  
Sally's eyes widened slightly in concern "You shouldn't be walking right now", she stated.  
  
Duo backed away from Quatre slightly in an effort to prove he could stand on his own, "I'm fine, I'm fine", he muttered. He looked at WuFei and upon noticing his stern expression smirked, "See you're enjoying the fashion here as much as I am"  
  
"Quiet Maxwell", the Chinese preventer growled under his breath.  
  
"Nice to know you're still in a good mood, man." Duo's smirk grew wider upon noticing something else, "Nice ass by the way." He winked just to add to the effect.  
  
WuFei, turned to face Duo with narrowed, questioning eyes but then noticed the same thing; the knot in the back of his hospital gown had somehow come undone, in effect, leaving a small gap between the fabrics. His face turned an indescribable shade of red. With the reflexes of a prowling tiger and to the applause of his comrade's chuckles WuFei's hands darted to close the opening.  
  
"So", snarled a very, very aggravated and embarrassed WuFei, "how long were you going to just let me make a fool of myself?"  
  
"It must have just happened", Sally said defensively, "I didn't notice it before"  
  
The embarrassed Asian growled a bit more as he found himself to a chair and sat down, deciding that to be the best way to cover his flank.  
  
After a few moments of chatter and pleasantries he had finally calmed down enough to think rationally. "So, what's our next move?" he dryly asked to no particular person. "The enemy has already threatened to attack a city if we don't hand over the prisoners."  
  
He knew what he was about to say would be argued with but Trowa had to say it, "Well then maybe we should just give him some of the people on the list."  
  
"Trowa", protested Quatre, "we can't do that."  
  
"Why not?" Trowa replied, "At this rate we can't possibly hope to defeat the terrorists in a frontal assault, at least this way we'll buy some time."  
  
"No", Sally shook her head, "We don't know what they plan to do with them."  
  
"Actually", WuFei somberly joined in, "I know it's against protocol but I'm not seeing any other options. We can't risk an attack on a city."  
  
So far, the group was evenly divided but there was one person left who hadn't given any input. All heads turned to Duo, whom soon after shrunk back and decided to take a seat himself. "Actually guys", he hesitantly began, all the pep had been raped from his voice, "I want out."  
  
Surprise, struck all there faces, none of them expected to hear that.  
  
"But, Duo..?", Quatre trailed off.  
  
"I'm sorry guys", the 'God of Death' continued, "I just, I just can't go getting myself killed like I used to in the old days. It just wouldn't be fair to Hilde; I was lucky enough today." Duo sighed, then held up his thumb and index finger- only a fraction of an inch separated from one another. "This close", he started again, "I came this close to death. That thing came crashing through my monitor and stopped, this close to my head before turning up and trashing the vitals on my Leo." Duo let his arm drop and stayed silent for a moment. "I mean, talk about luck, it was a miracle, I mean..." The others began to notice that Duo's arms were beginning to shake, "I mean God or someone up there must like me or something cause..."  
  
Quatre sighed and walked over to his brown haired chum, placing his hand on his shoulder in an effort to comfort him. "We understand, Duo."  
  
"Anyway", Duo had gathered himself again, "since I'm not going to be fighting I don't think I should have a vote."  
  
Quatre began to open his mouth to say something but Sally cut him off, "It's Lady Une's decision anyway, but I'm sure she'd want to hear your input if you have something to say"  
  
"I'm sorry man", Duo replied, "I can't really figure any of this out myself"  
  
Location: The Beehive Facility  
  
~*~*~ TIME: Unknown ~*~*~  
  
"How many times do I have to apologize for that?" Relena cried.  
  
"How many times do I have to explain this to you before you get it into your thick scull that this isn't about conquest?", sneered her cybernetic captor.  
  
"What else could you call this?", she yelled back at him. "You're brandishing huge military power, you practically have the entire Earth as a hostage and you even went as far as to turn yourself into a weapon. And why? So you can turn everyone into hideous cyborgs, like you."  
  
Tyler glared into the president's narrowed, angry, cerulean blue eyes, "You think I want to look like this?"  
  
"I can't think of any other reason why you would", she argued.  
  
Tyler's glare intensified. "The original test subject that was meant to receive these implants looked a lot like me, I chose him on purpose; the Eve of the surgery I replaced the mind control function with a device which allowed me to take control of the Beehive and the security system; the next morning I rendered the guy unconscious with medication and switched places with him. It was the only way I could stop them."  
  
"Bullshit", Heero cut in, "You could have just alerted the authorities."  
  
"Yes", answered Tyler, "But think, that would only have solved one of the problems, put out one of the fires. Now however", he grinned, "I should be able to solve all the world's problems. By creating a collective consciousness for all of humanity to share this kind of thing could never happen again."  
  
"Would you please just listen to yourself?" snapped Relena. "What happened to you? You sound like... you sound like..."  
  
"...like a fucking lunatic", Heero dryly suggested. "And what the hell is with the rat?" Heero motioned his hand to the large rodent Tyler was holding.  
  
It was a somewhat chubby animal, it's smooth glossy fur was mostly white except for a large brown spot around its right eye and a few more on other parts of its body. It had no tale to speak of, it had a flat nose, which it scrunched occasionally, and it was intently nibbling at a carrot, which Tyler was holding up to its mouth. "It's not a rat", Tyler corrected, "It's a guinea pig; I rescued it from the genetics lab a few years back and its name is Zippo 2."  
  
"You sound close", Heero commented.  
  
The cyborg's eyes narrowed while the implants within his irises seemed to rotate. "Oh, you'll pay for that", he replied. "Anyway, you people seemed lonely so I brought my friend Zippo 2 hear to keep you company."  
  
Relena gawked for a moment in disbelief, "You kidnap us, isolate us from society, invade the privacy of our own minds, rob us of our dignity and you think a rodent is going to make it all better."  
  
"No", Tyler immediately and matter of factly admitted as some mechanical hands placed a large aquarium with a wood chip bottom on the catwalk, "but I think I've made you suffer enough. Talking to Zippo always calmed me down when I needed amusement." The mecanical arms holding him brought him over to the aquarium where he gently dropped the docile creature in. For a moment, his metallic brown eyes fixed on her aqua blue glare; though it seemed as though he was looking past them, at something else. The moment was short lived, however and his eyes broke contact. "Besides, I don't think these arrangements are that bad. I practically let you go wherever you want, you have proper restroom facilities, you get three square meals a day - good meals mind you - I provide you with blankets and pillows and I even let your bodyguard live even though he's been plotting ways to kill me since you arrived. Even you, little miss 'princess', have to admit that as far as kidnappings go this is the good life; I'm practically treating you like a guest rather then my hostage."  
  
The two of them just continued their glare at the collection of metal and flesh that spoke.  
  
"Now, you see, if I were a bad guy I would have killed your boy toy in a particularly gruesome manner upon arrival, right in front of you, no less; tied you to a chair at gun point; barely feed you; physically torture you and use your body for my own sexual gratification."  
  
She clenched her teeth and took a step back in disgust with that last remark.  
  
"Oh come now", Tyler shrugged nonchalantly, "as much as I resent what you did to me and as much as I doubt whether you're cut out for your particularly nasty line of work, no one can deny that you certainly are a beautiful flower, my dear." He noticed that his words really weren't alleviating the situation and decided to continue with his speech, "But you see, I didn't do that."  
  
"Do you want a thank you note or something?" Heero grunted  
  
"No", Tyler responded, "but you could at least try to realize that things could be a lot worse then they are. And it's all right if you don't understand now, I guess. But rest assured that in all due time you will; you'll all understand my ideals and me. You'll all see that I was right all along", he added more quietly and rather spitefully. "With The Beehive, I will create a new world; a world built on unity, cooperation and logic. The very thing that all the great leaders have strived to attain for all of history is finally within our grasp; but only if one has the courage to grasp it, and do with it what must be done."  
  
"Destroy it?" Heero smoothly suggested.  
  
"Of course not", the ranting scientist snapped, "bring about the next stage in human evolution, of course. The betterment of mankind is the responsibility of all who wield such power."  
  
"I find that interesting", commented a more firm and composed Relena. She brushed a wild lock of blond hair out of her eye and continued, "You said unity, cooperation and logic?"  
  
Tyler turned, his eyes, though not wide shown with surprise to the fact that he didn't know she was about to say something before. He realized that he had been too busy talking to monitor her thoughts closely enough and after a brief moment of self-chastising, rescanned her mind.  
  
Relena's words, however, came before her thoughts could be processed, "what happened to love?"  
  
"Humph", Tyler grunted, his eyes narrowed again; quickly trailing back to Heero for a moment before resting themselves back on the white clad girl before him. "I see you still believe in fairy tales. Love is a primitive emotion, used by nature as a way to ensure the preservation of the species; a new, more evolved humanity has no need for such impure and unpredictable attachments. Like the cells of a body multiply to preserve the whole, so to shall the members of the collective procreate in a fashion that better serves the whole."  
  
The female president's shoulders rose and fell as she took a deep breath and released. "How could you possibly make a utopia if you don't even believe in love?"  
  
"Because love is just a bunch of organic chemicals and hormones", Tyler argued; his eyes were no longer as narrow, but shone with a blankness, as if he didn't even think about it. "There is nothing sacred about it"  
  
Relena balled her hand into a fist but maintained a straight face, "It must be nice to see people like that. People are just soulless animals to you, aren't they?"  
  
His response was cool and calculated, "Composed of multiple cells - lacking cell walls and photosynthetic organelles - all of which specialized at different tasks, obtains energy by consuming other living organisms, reproduces sexually; yes, I'd classify humans under Kingdom Animalia. Whether or not humans have souls or not is irrelevant. Either way, true peace cannot come to pass as long as each individual person is able to act on his or her own accord. Peace and freedom share an inverse relationship and individuality is the very root of conflict; different individuals have different agendas, which conflict with one another. These conflicts soon escalate to arguments, then to fights and then to war. The answer is obvious, in order to achieve true peace we must all become one, just like you said."  
  
Relena batted a stray lock of golden hair out of her eyes and ran her fingers through the rest of her unmanaged tresses in frustration. "When I made that speech I was talking about uniting nations; that's nothing at all like what you're proposing."  
  
"But still applicable", Tyler shot back; his face glowed with a half smile. "What is a nation anyway? A collection of people; people make up a nation, unite to nations, unite two peoples. I'm simply taking it to the next level."  
  
"What's the point?" a blue flame seemed to burn in the blond woman's eyes.  
  
Tyler cocked his hairless eyebrow, his mouth formed, an unusual twisted shape.  
  
"What's the point of having peace", continued Relena, "if you can't even enjoy it?"  
  
"Indeed", Tyler's voice darkened as the word slipped out of his pasty mouth. It was short lived however and he immediately straitened up again, "but I fail to see how a collective mind could possibly hinder one's ability to enjoy peace. If anything, it should enhance it. There are still world's to explore, comets to study, and bacteria to observer. Think of how much humanity could accomplish if we didn't have to waste so much effort on just policing itself."  
  
Relena closed her eyes to think and shook her head a bit, "But what's the point of all that? What's the point of scientific research if.", she trailed off as she tried to think of the right words to express her thoughts.  
  
She didn't need to translate her thoughts though; Tyler could read them directly and it caused an old bubble of discontent to swell within him until it finally burst, unleashing a array of napalm laced memories. "This again!?". He let himself drop onto the platform, rocking it slightly. His tentacle weapons and mechanical hands all stretched out as if he were about the strike. He stomped over to Relena, stopping within merely a few inches of her.  
  
She froze, unsure of what to expect. Heero tried to get between them but was held back by hard metal hands and tentacles wrapped around his limbs.  
  
"You're certainly an expert when it comes to that", Tyler hissed. It took it a moment but his face finally eased a bit and he hoisted himself back in the air "No need to worry though, if that's your only reserve. The 'love' of all the world will be yours, if such a thing exists. I'll make you a deal though; if, by chance my experiments fail you're free to go."  
  
The claws and hands constraining Heero released him from their grip. He thought to kick one but decided against it.  
  
"No", Relena stated, her face was firm and unyielding, "I won't accept anything less then you abandoning this madness"  
  
His eyes stayed narrow, the implants rotating again, as he looked into her cerulean stare, "That's my final offer; I'll take that as a yes. When the specimens arrive I'll begin the experiments."  
  
"What do you plan on doing with them?" Relena demanded.  
  
Tyler smirked, "I plan to see if the untameable are tameable."  
  
"Why don't you see it?", she responded, "Just because they're felons doesn't make them any less human."  
  
"You're right", he replied, "and as humans they'll have the opportunity to earn redemption by helping to usher in a new era."  
  
"This is inhumane", she insisted.  
  
"Heh", a deviant smile stretched across Tyler's pale face, "The current society locked these people within concrete walls, sentenced to hardly ever see the light of day for the rest of their lives; how humane is that? But, if you feel so strongly about their humanity I could always arrange for you to spend a night in a room with one of them. I think one of the violent serial rapists would do nicely, don't you think?"  
  
Relena couldn't help but be taken back by the image of being pinned down by a dirty old man with a ragged gray beard and yellow teeth as he aggressively ripped off her clothing articles flashing through her mind.  
  
Tyler's self-satisfied smirk continued, "I think you see my point. You'd be content enough to keep these people locked away from society under any normal circumstance. I'm just trying to help them, and all of a sudden, I'm being inhumane."  
  
"No", Relena snapped, "You don't want to help them, you want to use them as human guinea pigs to prove some radical theory of yours."  
  
"Maybe", admitted the steadfast cyborg, "But at least this way they can give something back. By being my guinea pigs they're laying the ground works for what will inevitably be true peace. Even if it is a 'radical theory' it's not like the maximum-security prisons I recruited them from will miss them. Only a few years ago most of these people would be on death row, lots of people still think they should be. Face it, I couldn't have chosen a better group of people to experiment on."  
  
"That doesn't change the fact that they're human beings", affirmed Relena.  
  
Tyler couldn't help but chuckle at the president's naivety, "Oh really now? Do you honestly think that one of these people were going to somehow change their ways?"  
  
Relena took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second or so; after a moments thought she opened her mouth to answer. "I have to believe that there's some good in them."  
  
"Indeed there is", conceded Tyler, "but even if they were to miraculously change their ways, it's not like they could help anyone. With their life sentences they're nothing more then a burden to tax payers. But, of course, we're getting substantially ahead of ourselves here; the chances of one of them turning around is moot, to say the least. However, if you really want to prove me wrong, there might be a way."  
  
Relena's head perked up upon hearing that, she shook her head slightly to get a stray strand of hair out of her face and fixed her gaze on Tyler. "What?" she asked.  
  
"I'll lock you in a cell with one of them"; he answered with a sneer. "If you're all right twenty-four hours later, I'll seriously reconsider my course of action. How about it?"  
  
A long silence followed as Relena weighed the consequences of either possible decision, silence that was only broken be the occasional sound of mechanical movement.  
  
"Think carefully", advised the patiently waiting cyborg, "forget neither what's on the line, nor your odds."  
  
The blond woman looked at Heero's concerned face, his mouth was partially open, his beautiful blue eyes were wide with worry and still said nothing. She then looked up at Tyler who hung above her on metal arms and tentacles, staring down at her with, what appeared to be great interests. It was hard to tell though, since his face had been near mutilated by the implants in his head; he looked fierce no matter what expression he seemed to try to convey. She then stared into the black void of vines and machinery, which surrounded the gray padded platform and catwalk which made up the majority of their 'confinement'. Then she noticed the large aquarium full of wood shavings, and the guinea pig - Zippo 2 - within it; whom she had almost completely forgotten about. She then looked back up at Tyler and swallowed before finally choking the words out of her mouth. "I'll do it"  
  
Tyler's mechanical eyes grew wider. He seemed almost confused.  
  
"No don't", pleaded her loyal bodyguard as he took hold of her hand.  
  
She shook her head in response. "No Heero, I have to", the caramel blond politician explained, "If there's even a chance I have to take it."  
  
"Relena, you can't...", Heero trailed off, unable to think of a way to end his thought he just repeated himself, "you can't..."  
  
A small cackle interrupted the two, "My, I really underestimated you Miss Darlian. You have a lot more guts then I gave you credit for." He actually almost sounded legitimately awestruck, but he maintained a level of sarcasm about him, which made it difficult to tell. "If that's you're final decision, then I'll make it so. For now though, I must be leaving you." With that, Tyler, tossed Relena the carrot Zippo had been nibbling one earlier and his network of mechanical fines and arms carried him off into the darkness, beyond where the two caged love birds could see.  
  
Relena walked over to the six-inch rodent and cradled it in her arms. She then seated herself on the padding of their platforms and held the carrot up to the docile creature's mouth, coaxing it to extend its head out and resume its frantic nibbling.  
  
Heero just watched this, still dumbfounded, but mostly sick with worry. "Relena, as your bodyguard I can't let you do this. It's my responsibility to..."  
  
"That's alright Heero, I understand", she looked back up to meat his navy blue eyes with her cerulean, "but I've already made my decision. I'm well aware of the risks." The small brown and white animal in her arm, purred in contentment while is rapidly chewed a bite of carrot with its small pink mouth. Relena turned her head down to look at it little creature and Zippo met her gaze with his glossy black eyes, squinting its nose a few times before greedily resuming its attack on the carrot. "Tyler was right about one thing though", Relena commented.  
  
Heero cocked his eyebrow, "Hm?"  
  
"Feeding this little guy is kind of relaxing"  
  
Heero let out a short gasp in frustration, "just be sure to wash your hands after playing with that filthy thing."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
His feet made a loud thump with every step as he walked down the dark hallways. Of course, due to the ocular implants in his formerly half blind eyes, he could see perfectly fine, and on multiple levels of the electro magnetic spectrum. He finally came to the room and the door slid open, behind it, a group of energy ports. Only one of them was active, but it was all he needed. He hadn't recharged the battery packs implanted throughout his body for quite some time and the extra energy demanded by the more complicated control systems which had been later added on to the initial implants had been straining them far too much. A jolt of intense pain surged through his body for a moment but was soon suppressed by the ISS subroutines, yet another symptom of overexerting the systems integrated with his body. The original cyborg model (intended to be used as mindless shock troops) was designed to last for two decades, though in his current state, Tyler couldn't see himself lasting for more then another nine months. It was all right though, it would take less time then that to establish the collective, and then, even if his body were lost, his mind, everything that was him, would be saved within the collective memory forever. Besides, he could always remove many of the particularly strenuous additions afterwards.  
  
The pod he meant to climb into opened up, inviting him in.  
  
He was vexed; he was vexed about being vexed. Why should it matter what the 'Princess of Peace' thinks about his plan? It shouldn't, this would all lead to peace in the end so he's completely justified in his actions. Just because she couldn't see it now didn't mean anything, she'd see the light eventually. She was always behind him, if she didn't quit she'd probably just end up coming to the same conclusion as himself later in life anyway; there was just no way around it. In order to achieve true peace, humanity's will has to be completely consolidated, which would never happen on its own for any length of time; it's simple logic. It's the foolish, naturalist beliefs of the old world which were keeping people from daring to come to this realization and keeping humanity divided as it is.  
  
He was locked into the pod and could feel the energy transmission spokes lock into the receiver ports on his back while the capsule tilted backwards like a bed. As his mechanical components recharged, so to would his original biological body.  
  
'I hope I don't dream again', he thought as he could feel consciousness begin to slip away from him. Last time he did this he dreamed, which was unusual for him. It was more of a memory then a dream actually; it was of back when he used to tutor a young, self-indulgent Relena Darlian, back before that bitch of a president confirmed to him, time and time again, that hard work and being a nice guy wouldn't get you more then a pat on the back and a pink slip when you were of no more use. Those spoiled rich kids, born near the top, would always take precedence; ability had nothing to do with it. But he would fix it all; he would fix all the injustice in the world, all the problems, all the pain and he would do it all by himself.  
  
With those final thoughts, Dr. Tyler Marcus fell into an unconscious state. 


	10. The Experiment

AN: I'm sorry this took so very, very long. School has been slowing me down and there was a scene in here that was very awkward to write. I probably should have thought of that before I made the plot outline but by the time I posted chapter 9 it was simply too late to turn back. Originally, she was going to back down from Tyler's challenge but, I found that it just wasn't like her to not put her life in dire jeopardy for a one in a million shot - for all that pacifism crap she preaches she's pretty gutsy. Anyway, between my own inhibitions, schoolwork, Arc the Lad and some other games I was finally able to piece this chapter together.  
  
I also wanted to mention that I rearranged events (again); I took what was originally going to be the second part of this chapter and added it to the next. There are two reasons for this A) This chapter was already long enough, and B) there really wasn't that much in the next chapter so I wanted to lengthen it.  
  
The Beehive  
  
Chapter 10: The Experiment  
  
DATE: February 20, 203 AC LOCATION: Preventer's Base Camp  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 1:05 PM ~*~*~  
  
Blood money, that's all it really was in reality, no matter how hard she thought about it she couldn't see it as anything more then trading lives for lives. It sickened her, what she was doing; she could hardly believe that Lady Une approved it but it's not that she could blame her either. Her thoughts raced even faster as the armored truck drove past, trying to think of a legitimate reason to stop it, but her mind pulled up a blank. There was just no way around it, and that's what curled her intestines the most.  
  
"There's no reason to be so upset, Sally", Trowa assured her, "it was the only course of action we could possibly have taken."  
  
Sally turned around to see Trowa leaning against a roadside poll; his oversized red bang seemed to shimmer in the relentless sunrays that bombarded them from the large radiating globe in the sky. He was studying her with his expressionless green spheres.  
  
She heaved her shoulders in a sigh, "It still doesn't make me feel any better." Her blue squinty eyes narrowed as they observed a second armored truck passing by.  
  
"We're only handing over about fifteen of the requested prisoners", he continued, "it should be just enough to buy some time."  
  
"To do what?", she snapped.  
  
"I don't know", Trowa admitted, "but we can't risk them attacking a civilian center."  
  
The blond Chinese woman gasped and marched past Trowa to one of the nearby tents, taking shelter from the merciless sun; Trowa followed, still studying her body language. "So", she finally broke the moment's silence, "We're just trading lives. I feel like some savage tribal, offering a human sacrifice." She picked up a towel off of a nearby table and wiped the salty droplets of moisture that had excreted from her brow.  
  
"I understand, Sally", replied the ever calm and analytical Trowa, "but there comes a time where you have to make a choice about things. I'm afraid that we may in fact be making the enemy stronger but I really can't see what other options we have."  
  
WuFei came out from behind some large boxes, brandishing a large oriental saber and a polishing clothe, "Besides, I wouldn't spare them any sympathy."  
  
After barely restraining her initial impulse to jump out of her socks at the unexpected site of a male figure, seemingly coming out of nowhere, with a sharp metal tool of death, she tilted her red lips into a smug half smile in an effort to hide the shock, "WuFei, were you eaves dropping?"  
  
He turned his attention back to rubbing his blade with the silky white cloth, seemingly uninterested in his two comrade's conversation, "not really". He held the sword up and carefully examined it, studying each glint, every glimmer of light the steel blade reflected. Once satisfied, he found the sheath leaning against the box he had 'hidden' behind and let the sharp metal shaft slide in. "I think you're getting too upset about this though; I for one have no intention of letting a bunch of honor-less pigs get in my way. We salvaged most of our mobile suits; we just have to hit them harder and faster next time."  
  
It wasn't exactly the type of brilliant plan Sally was looking for but it was definitely something her partner would come up with. He had a point though, they all had a point, it was the only option they really had open to them.  
  
LOCATION: The Beehive Facility  
  
~*~*~ TIME: Unknown ~*~*~  
  
He really didn't have to say anything; they could tell by the look on his face that he was ready for the 'experiment'. His eyes fixed on his young female test subject; intently examining her for any signs of hesitation or surrender while his pallid white lips maintained a slight self-assured smirk. "It's time", he finally stated.  
  
Slowly, Relena rose from the padded surface she had been sitting on; her stomach churned with a myriad of unsettling fluids and sensations, while her hand quivered slightly, knowing what was about to happen. She turned her pleading blue eyes back to her chocolate haired bodyguard, searching for some sign of support; she found only a shaking head of disapproval and another pair of pleading eyes looking back. "Relena don't do this", he begged, "I'm not just telling you this as your bodyguard. You don't know what you're getting in to."  
  
"Jacob Deter; age 39", Tyler's face remained unchanged as he reported her future inmate, "During his seven year reign of terror this man sexually molested ten women, only one of which escaped with her life. He was able to evade capture for such a long time because of the political happenings, which destabilized the government. When he finally was captured he was in line to be put on death row but was soon off it due to the ban on capital punishment; an action, if I'm not mistaken, which you completely supported."  
  
Relena closed her eyes and solemnly nodded her head. She could have sworn she'd heard that name somewhere before; actually all of it seemed to be familiar; but she couldn't quite remember where or how.  
  
Tyler's smirk widened, "Ironic isn't it?" He paused for a moment then continued, "After putting you in the cell, I'll come back twenty-four hours later to collect you; or, what's left of you. If you're all right after being in a cell with this man alone for twenty-four hours, you win, simple as that."  
  
"Relena don't", the wide-eyed Heero looked like he was close to getting on his knees, "I can't let you do this!"  
  
"You're more then welcomed to back out, Ms. Darlian", reminded Tyler, "just be aware though, that once you're in the cell you're on your own for twenty- four hours. It's your choice."  
  
She looked back at Heero; he looked so desperate she almost wanted to cry. "I... I have to Heero", she swallowed a pocket of air in an effort to somehow suppress the expanding balloon beneath her rib cage, "It's our only... OH!", she gasped; her cerulean blue eyes grew as wide as gulf balls as a large mechanical tentacle wrapped around her waste and carried her away into the darkness.  
  
Heero's normally calm and collected exterior erupted into a red explosive rage; he ran to the edge of the platform that Relena had been carried off towards clenching his fists, "NO!" His legs grew weak and bowed out from under him; as they hit the floor he punched the padding with all he had, leaving a fist shaped dent in the platform. He glared at Tyler with burning eyes, "Tyler, I swear I'm going to kill you", the words slid off his acid tongue with a hiss, "I will find a way."  
  
Tyler simply hung off to his side, above a long, dark drop with a blank expression on his face. He seemed neither interested nor concerned about the former Gundam pilot's threat. "Spare me your violent banter", he finally said, his voice was without fear or much emotion at all, almost mocking his threat, "It was her decision." He then slipped back into the abyss of machines where it was too dark for Heero to see.  
  
Fury and panic bounced in the former pilot of 01's mind; the thought that that may have been the last time he ever saw Relena alive stirred some long forgotten emotion within Heero's gut, which churned it's way up his wind pipe, reddening his face. Each time he tried to swallow it, it simply came back stronger then before, it seemed the vile sensation grew infinitely. He wanted her back more then anything; he wasn't sure what he would do but he would have gladly cut off his own leg and seared the wound shut with a hot iron just for another minute with her. He wasn't quite sure what he would do or say in that minute but he'd take it at any cost, if nothing else then to just look at her. "TYLER!", Heero's normally quitter, more monotone voice boomed through the complex with a rageful passion so blinding the world seemed stained with blood, "If ANYTHING, happens to her I WILL KILL YOU!" His back rose and fell with each desperate panting breath for several minutes - how many he could not tell - until he was finally able to think again. He soon found himself on his back, prostrate; a lock of dark hair hung in his cobalt eye, but he found no energy to move it. 'Why does this always happen to me?' he thought, 'How come God or fate or Allah, or whatever the hell I'm supposed to believe in never gives me a damn break?' His chest seemed to tighten the more it thought about it. Trowa, Quatre, Duo, Zechs they all have families of some type now; maybe WuFei didn't but at least he had a family at one time. Before meeting Relena, the closest thing to a family he could clearly remember was the man he was for all practical purposes apprenticed to, and a number of other older rebels and terrorists he had found himself tossed between. However, all of them, each and every one of them had been torn away from him at some point or another, whether it was by death, circumstance or abandonment and now, he feared, Relena would join them. 'So why?', he continued, 'Why was I supposed to be alone?'  
  
~*~*~ TIME: Unknown ~*~*~  
  
Luck seemed to have been with her, for a while at least, her 'inmate' had been asleep when she entered the cell and she had no intention of waking him yet; she just coward against the other side of their cell with her back against the cold stone wall. To say she was frightened would be an understatement; she couldn't even hold her hand completely still and there was an unpleasant aching sensation in the pit of her stomach. There was nowhere to hide; the cell was almost completely circular and seemed to have been carved out of rocks in the ground; it was dark but there was enough light to see everything in the room easily and the only furniture were two cots that were side by side, one obviously occupied by a man the man in the bright orange prison uniform.  
  
'Jacob Deter', she pondered, 'where do I remember that name from? The news?'  
  
The man stirred a bit, and Relena's heart stopped beating, her eyes expanded and she backed herself into the wall as tight as she could - half hoping to somehow permeate the wall to safety. Fortunately, the man didn't wake up.  
  
'Stupid, stupid, stupid', she criticized herself wordlessly, 'Relena you're so stupid. What did I think I was going to do?' She quickly scanned the sleeping felon, 'He's not as big as Heero but he still looks a lot stronger then me. Come on Relena, think, there's got to be some way to get through this.'  
  
"You're here? You're really here?" Relena snapped her head back up as she noticed that the previously sleeping felon had finally woken up, and furthermore finally got a good look at his face. To her utter horror she finally recalled where she remembered the name. The red hair on his top had grown longer and coiled, and roughage had now covered his whole jaw area but she remembered his face from the mug shots she saw on the report she glanced at four years ago. He had been caught trying to break into the Presidential Residence, when he was further investigated they found that he had been obsessing over her for quite some time. More precisely, they found hundreds of newspapers and magazine cutouts of her along with dozens of pictures of other fair skinned, blonde haired; blue eyed girls and young women whom were later identified as his previous victims. She could vaguely remember skimming the high points of the report and then brushing it aside; it wasn't that she didn't care, it was that she had more important things to do then dwell on some psychopath who couldn't even make it past the first security net; like work on getting the ban on capital punishment passed.  
  
"Oh my god", she practically shouted, "you!", she accusingly stammered, "you stay away." Her light blue eyes were Pong balls as she franticly examined her imprisonment for any means of escape; but the walls were all solid and the only escape was on the ceiling.  
  
The man rose from his cot and focused his olive eyes on the terrified girl against the wall. "You finally came", he stated in what sounded like controlled excitement, "I knew it was love." It almost sounded like he was trying to sound seductive but as far as Relena was concerned he couldn't be doing a worse job.  
  
"Love!?", the very unpresidential president shrieked as she released herself from the hard stone wall and began scooting to her left in and effort to somehow delay his approach but she knew it was a futile act; she was completely boxed in and it was only a matter of time before he cornered her. The curved walls of the room seemed to close in around her as her panicked mind tried to unearth a solution to her predicament. Blanks were all she found, though.  
  
"Yes, love, don't you remember?" The red haired convict quickened his pace. "I could tell it was love since the first time you looked at me like that."  
  
"I'm sorry", she responded, "but I don't ever remember meeting you before, EVER." She had put great effort into trying not to sound frightened but she wasn't quite sure how believable it was since she couldn't completely keep her hands steady.  
  
"Don't you remember", he slowed down and widened his green eyes a bit as though he were hurt, "Don't you remember your speech in Bradford? The way you looked at me, I knew you felt the same way too."  
  
"I think you might be mistaken", she interrupted, "I've done a lot of speeches and I don't remember you at any of them." 'He's completely out of his mind', she mentally noted.  
  
He seemed to completely ignore what she said and continued with his rant, "I tried to see you later; I did, honest I did. Your guards stopped me though and were going to kill me too but you stopped them; and now, you've finally come to see me."  
  
"I... I", she faltered, "Y, you've raped ten women", she accused.  
  
Jacob's face still remained calm as he began to steadily close the distance between them, "I loved them all too, but they betrayed me. But you, you'd never betray me. You're Relena Peacecraft, you could never do that to someone."  
  
Relena quickened her back steps. "Just stay away, please", she pleaded.  
  
"Don't be afraid", he assured her, "There's no need to fear love."  
  
Relena could have vomit. "What's wrong with you?", she screeched. Her legs hit something unexpected on her back step and she stumbled only to be caught by and in the arms of her pursuer. Somewhere in the back of her mind it registered that it was a cot that she had just stumbled on, that didn't really seem to matter much though.  
  
He held her tightly by the waist and tugged on her golden ponytail so hard it tilted her face up to his. "I love you so much", he whispered to the petrified young blonde in his arms.  
  
"I,I,I...", she had trouble forcing the words out of her mouth on account of its continuous quivering, "I don't love you", she weakly stated, as a tear rolled down her cheek.  
  
"You do", he replied as he forced his lips to hers.  
  
The attacks of his mouth seemed as if they were meant to bruise her, the bristles of his growing beard seemed to leave scratches where they rubbed. She struggled, she tried to push herself away but his grip grew tighter. She was unable barely able to breath, to petrified to scream; not that screaming would have done any good, she was completely on her own. If only she were stronger, if only she weren't such a weak littlie pacifist, if only she were... 'Heero', she mentally uttered, 'what would Heero do? Fight, right? Can I?' She could feel her attacker tugging down on her pants. 'Pacifism be damned!'  
  
The advancing pervert withdrew as he felt the unpleasant sensation of the smaller woman's knee making a sudden connection with his groin. Likewise, Rlenena backed up, just as surprised as him. Time seemed to stop as Relena couldn't help but find herself gawking at the red haired man, whom had just been molesting her, cradling his delicate genitals. Something about the situation seemed surreal to her, she could remember planning the action, she could even remember carrying it out but it still didn't seem to connect in her brain completely so she just sustained her bewildered stare until her head abruptly snapped to her right. There wasn't any pain, at first; there was just a resounding smacking sound - like a textbook being dropped on a table - that seemed to come out of nowhere. When it finally dawned on her that she had just been struck, the culprit was violently pulling her down with him to the cot. She kicked, she screamed, she thrashed, she cried but was unable to brake free of her attacker's grip and inevitably found herself pinned beneath him. He was pressing against her harder, tugging and tearing her ivory white clothing. She made another attempt at his sensitive area but only hit his inner leg; he returned the blow to her face. This time, she went limp, seemingly devoid of any energy or will.  
  
"YOU WILL LOVE ME!", the man on top of her practically shouted as he frantically ripped open her jacket.  
  
Fluid began to spill out from her eyes, she was defeated; there was nowhere to run, there was no way to fight him off and no one would hear her screams; there was no hope. As much as it curled her stomach and soured her thoughts she could see no other possible way to survive this man then to submit to his warped fantasy.  
  
"Tell me you love me", he rubbed is rough callous hand along her delicate quivering jaw line.  
  
"I...", she tilted her head as her lungs struggled to wind out the slimy words, "I..... love you."  
  
He pushed her head back up, his hands aggravating the tender bruises that were already developing on the side of her face. "Look at me and tell me!"  
  
The words rubbed off her tong with the slip of sand paper "h... h... I, do".  
  
He pressed his mouth to hers and dug his tongue through her lips; his rotting fumes permeated her nasals as his heavy body rocked against hers. She could feel his hands finishing their previous task of dragging themselves down her hips exposing the pale sensitive flesh. She closed her eyes, grimacing in advance to the imminent moment when he would come on her like an ax to wood; and then, without warning, all the weight was gone.  
  
She kept her eyes shut, for fear of the possibilities outside of them, 'Was it a dream; a nightmare? Am I safe? Did I black out? Noises? Pounding? I can here metal too; what happened?'  
  
And then she heard a voice, which prodded her eyes to open, revealing the truth to her. The voice was by no means friendly, and while not entirely welcomed was far more pleasing to hear then the ranting of her assailant. It was somewhat monotone, not entirely deep enough to come across as macho and the words seemed to lack the use of the nose.  
  
"Are you done?" Tyler's mouth bowed up slightly but his expression still seemed to remain indifferent to the wild red haired man attacking his body.  
  
He seemed to pause for a moment then swung his large fist at the cyborg's head, only to be caught in the vice grip of Tyler's black gloved, mechanically enhanced hand. For a moment the two were at a stand still, exchanging glares, but the moment soon passed as Relena witnessed Tylers hand close in on Mr. Deter's fist.  
  
"UUUAOOOHHH!!! AHHH!!! H HUUEE!", the torturous screams frame the frizzy red haired man revirbed throughout the small circular cell with an ear pounding volume accompanied by the cracking and popping of his hand bones under the crushing vice Tyler, the cyborg, was applying. He released the man letting his arm dangle at his side like a fleshy pole connected to a purplish bag of shattered bones and torn muscle. He was not yet done though.  
  
Relena witnessed the cold precision of a mechanical hand weaving around the tortured, screaming prisoner and latching onto his back; with a short and violent jerk at the waist, there was another audible snap and another scream of agony as the his legs bowed out from under him.  
  
With the pain soaked man on the floor, Tyler returned his attention to Relena and Relena - realizing that her pants were lower then modesty would like - pulled her, now somewhat torn, ivory slacks back up. "You!", she finally stammered out in a rage full outburst of tears.  
  
"Don't try to pin this on me Relena, you were 'well aware of the risks'; I didn't force you to do a single thing. In fact, I don't believe I advised it, even. It isn't my fault this happened so I would appreciate it if you wouldn't say it is. Actually, you should be thanking me; our original outline of the experiment stated that you were to be left alone for a full twenty-four hours with this man."  
  
"You!", her face was scarlet with anger, "This wasn't fair! He was insane! He had some twisted obsession with me."  
  
"It was completely fair", he shot back, face still deadpan, "It was the most accurate way to test. The purpose of the experiment was to determine whether these people could change without a collective mind and thus, didn't deserve to be my test subjects. So, in order to be absolutely sure, we had to test the one that was most likely to assault you. If your golden tongue was able to sway him then surly the others aren't beyond conventional help themselves. Although, I must admit, the obsession thing was a bit disturbing. He meant full well what he said though; it's quite interesting actually.  
  
"Anyway, if you're so dead set on insisting this wasn't fair I'd be more then willing to toss you in with another one if you'd."  
  
Relena's shoulders heaved up and down beneath her ravaged golden tresses, her face still bright with fury and confusion. "I... I..."  
  
"That's what I thought." Tyler gestured to the sweaty man writhing in pain on the floor, "Anyway, what should I do with him? I could let him lie there and die slowly in pain, I could use the bees to heal him or...", He held up his left arm and a bladed tentacle weapon shot out of the large pod on his wrist and settled with the sharp, glistening tip hanging only five inches above Jacob's scull, "I could just put him out of his misery right here and now. It's up to you."  
  
The frazzled blond haired woman simply gawked for several hour-long seconds, mouth half gaping open as she tried to hold back her tears. She looked down from her cot, with her sapphire eyes to the man whom had just been molesting her; he was wet and red, grimacing, half conscious as he irregularly struggled to pump air in and out of his lungs. She meekly shook her head, still bewildered in her expression, "no", her words were nearly inaudible, "let him live, please". With those last words she sank back down and curled up; unable to restrain her sorrow and confusion, tears resumed their stream from her eyes.  
  
Tyler retracted the blade back into the wrist pod. He turned back to the weeping woman, with a small scowl, "Very well then. Your wounds are only superficial and will repair by themselves but I could easily fix them before I take you back."  
  
She answered with sobs.  
  
"I see."  
  
LOCATION: Preventer's Base Camp  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 11:02 PM ~*~*~  
  
"You're watching, INSANITY VIEW!" blasted the television.  
  
The screen then blanked out for a partial second and then shown bright again with a large blue CG title, which was too close to read, but was slowly backing away.  
  
"Few stories have the INTRIGUE", an over-exaggerated, deep, serious voice stated as the word 'intrigue' flashed across the screen, "the DRAMA", the word 'drama' was next, "the PASSION and the BOOZE, that can match the greatest tail of our time as...", the CG title tilted out to an angle where it was legible, "DARLIAN!"  
  
"From her school years", a pretty actress dressed to look like a younger Relean Darlian jumped into a cheering crowd of teens holding, what looked like some kind of alcohol. The party-hardy crowd begin carrying and bouncing her up and down but drop her as their attention turns to a large cake being rolled into the ballroom; recorded laughter is heard as a background noise.  
  
"Her reign over the Sanc Kingdom as Peacecraft", the actress was sitting as a wooden desk with her legs up on the table. She has a cocky smile on her face and is talking to an actor meant to look something like Heero, "Well, there's your school uniform she commented." The actor began walking out off the screen with the uniform in hand but is interrupted by the actress playing Relena, "Oh no you don't, you're changing in here." Her finger slipped underneath her desk and shortly after, the curtains in her office closes while bright colorful lights open up around her office and a pole drops from the ceiling. More recorded laughter is heard in the background.  
  
The deep voice started up again, "to her rise to power in the Romefeller Foundation". The camra shows the upper half of an actor dressed to resemble Duke Durmail looking down wide eyed wile jiggling somewhat and ranting in a British accent, "Oh My, that feels rather good actually. Oh , oh gracious me good show! Jolly good show I say!" The recorded laughter was stronger this time.  
  
"And even, in recent times", the deep voice continued. An actor playing Quatre seemed particularly nervous about being around the actress playing Relena in a revealing red dress and a champagne glass in her hand. "Aw come on Quatre, one isn't going to kill ya", the actress challenged as she closed the distance between her and Quatre. Quatre backed away, "B...but miss Relena, I don't drink alchohol, uh what are you..?" the actress playing Relena pounced the actor playing Quatre, at which point, it freeze framed and the title appeared on the screen again "DARLIAN! Coming to the theatre near you." Laughter, hollers, clapping and whistling broadcasted from the set as the screen faded to a stage, illuminated with the Insanity View logo.  
  
A fuming Quatre smashed the power switch and the television screen went blank. He then shot Duo - whom was trying his best to suppress his mirth for his old comrade's sake - one of his few and less then intimidating glares. "I really don't see why that's funny?", he reproached.  
  
Duo looked up at the blonde Arab, now, more then ever, trying to hold down the smile but could only manage a twisted expression, which seemed likely to pop. "I'm sorry man, it just is", he shook his head as he explained himself.  
  
"Hm...", growled the particularly annoyed Arabian aristocrat, "They completely twisted that whole incident around. She tripped; she was wearing high heels; the media just took it and ran."  
  
Duo rose from his seat and cupped the bandage around his right arm as the burn delivered a short rush of pain. "Well", he grimaced slightly, "at least we know this whole thing is still a secret."  
  
"Yeah...", Quatre turned his head to the left and stared down one of the nearby enclosure curtains. After realizing that the robin's egg curtain was simply going to hang there separating one part of the medical tent from the other he turned back to his braided friend, "I've got to get back to the others, we're going to be planning our next move. Are you sure you want out?"  
  
The mild displeasure caused by being constantly asked that for the past day was beginning to upset him but he forced himself to hide it, "I told you man, as soon as I can, I'm out of here."  
  
Quatre sighed in defeat, "Well, alright then, I'll be leaving". A dark aura followed the blonde man as he trudged away from the 'God of Death'.  
  
"Hey Quatre!", Duo called after him while trying to lighten his expression some more, "Hey, what's the matter?"  
  
Air seeped into the Arab's lungs and slowly expelled as he gathered his thoughts. After a short period of silence he finally exercised his vocals again, "Something just isn't right."  
  
Duo couldn't restrain a snicker, "Well, duh..."  
  
"No, I mean something bad is going to happen", Quatre greenish blue eyes narrowed and his mouth went stern as he turned back around to see his comrade's half-smirk.  
  
"Quatre", the chestnut haired man replied as politely as he could, yet still, sarcastically, "something bad has already happened."  
  
"It's just going to get worse soon", he corrected himself, "It's been gnawing at my heart all day; something truly awful is going to happen."  
  
Duo hobbled closer to Quatre; a nighttime desert breeze caught his long braided hair and gently shook it to the side. "Listen Quatre, it's called anxiety; we're all feeling it but there's no need to worry, cause I know Heero would never let either Relena or himself die like this. Got it?"  
  
"Maybe", the former Sandrock pilot answered weakly, "I, I hope you're right Duo but..."  
  
Duo cocked his sunburned eyebrow for a moment.  
  
"Have you ever...?", continued Quatre, "Have you ever just had some strong feeling about something and not understand..?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Nothing Duo, I can't really explain it. It's just... Heero... it's pain; he's going to make a grave mistake, and..."  
  
Duo placed a comforting hand on Quate's shoulder, "Listen, just, calm down and get some rest, no one really knows the future, got it?"  
  
Quatre picked his head up and managed a weak smile, "I guess I do need some rest."  
  
"Yeah", the braided man's mood brightened in correlation to Quatre's, "fortune telling's just a bunch a hogwash anyway, right?"  
  
Quatre's smile switched to a glare.  
  
Duo put his hands up in surrender, "Ok, ok, went too far. Just trying to make you fell better. sheesh."  
  
"How did you figure calling me crazy would make me feel better?", his voice was stern.  
  
The former Deathscythe pilot shrugged slightly, "Well, I didn't exactly call you crazy Quatre, but sorry man"  
  
"That's all right, Duo", Quatre shook his head, "I've been edgy lately. I think I'm going to take your advice and get some rest." He paused for a moment, 'When I can', he silently added. "Good night."  
  
"Night Quatre", Duo waved as his wealthy comrade left the medical tent.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
AN: Again, I'm sorry this took so long. I'll try to get chapter 11 out a lot sooner but I'm not making any guarantees. It seems I've been getting busier by the day and I may just not have either the time or the energy to get it done in a timely fashion. However, I've finally turned in the last of the three long-term projects I had been assigned so hopefully I'll have more time. 


	11. Assassination Attempt

The Beehive  
  
Chapter 11: Assassination Attempt  
  
DATE: February 20, 203 AC LOCATION: The Beehive Facility  
  
~*~*~ TIME: Unknown ~*~*~  
  
The heavy sound of Heero's fists pounding on the door to the restroom facilities, reverberated throughout the complex. "Relena! open the door!", He screamed. He jerked on the handle again......... still locked. He paused for a moment, listening for any sign of movement. Hearing no indication of movement, he pushed up against the door again while his mind succumbed to panic. She had come back early; he didn't know how early but she had definitely come back before the full 24 hours were up, and the first thing she did when she returned was lock herself in the restroom before he could even get a good look at her. She could be passed out on the floor no more then a mere four feet from him and he wouldn't know. "Relena! I have to see you! If you don't open this door right now, I'm breaking it down!" He waited for about five seconds, hoping to hear a reply – none came. "That's it!", He shouted, "I'm breaking in! You have until the count of THREE!", he added, "ONE......! TWO......! THREE......!" He charged the door, shoulder first; the force of his momentum rippled thorough the atoms of the flimsy material bending a cracking it at the lock. Still anxious, he took one step back and landed his foot down the center of the wooden panel, shattering it around the hinges and knob. It seemed to stand for a moment more, resilient in its efforts to bar Heero from his charge, but soon succumbed to the mortality of its weight and fell with the grace of a pitched stone.  
  
A feminine shriek, laced with blind terror and surprise soon followed. It carried hope though, Relena was definitely still conscious.  
  
"Relena!", the bodyguard barged into the room, his indigo eyes probing all corners of the room. There was nothing that unusual about it; it was like any other public bathroom, mostly. Sapphire tiles lined the bottom half of the walls; white tiles the top. The tiles on the floor were a shade of gray; to the left, in a row there were two porcelain sinks, a towel and soap dispenser, followed by a urinal and two toilet stalls with stainless steel dividers between them. The only difference was the drain and a makeshift shower-head that had been installed in the near right corner – presumably so that they could keep clean. Finally he saw her, huddled in the far right corner, a trembling snowball of a woman blanketed by a disarrayed mess of blond hair. For an instant's time, Heero's indigo eyes caught the reddened facade of Relena Darlian, but only for that instant, for she berried it back into her sleeves. "Relena?", his eyes trailed across her jumbled white garb. He began to slowly advance toward her, "are you alright?"  
  
Somehow sensing his advance, the sobbing woman compressed herself against the far wall even more tightly. Still hiding her face she managed to choke out, "Go away!"  
  
Heero paused for a moment, distraught by Relena's harsh words, but he couldn't stop. 'Why was she being so irrational about this?', he pondered while he cautiously knelt beside her. "I can't do that", he stated in the calmest voice he could muster. "I have to make sure you're all right", he explained, "now show me your face."  
  
"NO!", she screeched, "Just leave me alone!" Her head faintly bobbed with each agonizing sob.  
  
Heero combed his hands through his chocolate tresses in and effort to try and keep calm, but it was of little use, Relena could be seriously hurt and she wasn't cooperating. "I have to know. Please......... I need to know what happened."  
  
"Nothing happened!", she snapped.  
  
"Gah", Heero couldn't help but express his exasperation verbally; he'd never heard a more obvious lie escape Relena's lips. "You came back hours early and the first thing you did was lock yourself in the bathroom and start balling your eyes out! Like hell nothing happened!"  
  
Relena simply groaned in fear; Heero didn't normally yell at her like this.  
  
Steam seethed from Heero's crevices, "Relena, now show me your face!", he demanded.  
  
"No!", she cried back.  
  
This was starting to get unbearably difficult for Yuy, 'If she'd just cooperate it would make my job a whole lot easier.' "Relena, I have to see your face. If you don't let me see, I'll make you."  
  
Still she did nothing but continue to cry.  
  
Neither Relena nor Heero were expecting it when his tough callous fist reached out to grasp a handful of Relena's golden locks and pulled back, tilting Relena's face up into view. Her gaping mouth hung open and her crystal cerulean eyes were wide in shock.  
  
Hawk eyes soon settled on a black and purple bruise positioned just below and around the stunned woman's left eye.  
  
Heero released her hair, "Damn it Relena!"  
  
Still dazed Relena backed up against the adjacent wall again. This time, her eyes were fixed on Heero's. "You... y, you.........", she stammered out accusingly.  
  
Heero didn't have time for this, Relena had clearly taken a serious blow to the head and may have received some permanent damage. The worst part was, she was behaving so irrationally that it was hard to tell exactly how hurt she was; and then there was another even more uncomfortable possibility. "Listen Relena; listen to me. Do you feel at all dizzy or light headed?"  
  
She only continued to gawk. 'How could he be such a jerk?'  
  
"Relena, you could have a concussion; answer me."  
  
"I'm fine!", she snapped.  
  
His Indigo eyes grew wider; though his face kept stern and unrelenting some his eyes betrayed the façade "I don't know that!", Heero shot back.  
  
"He said it was just a 'superficial wound'"  
  
"Who said?", he asked.  
  
"Tyler", she stammered, "Tyler said I'd fully recover."  
  
He studied her some more, taking careful note of the purplish blob of swelling flesh on her face. It certainly looked painful, but now that he had a better view of it he could see that it might not have been as severe as he thought at first. Next he noted how disarrayed her suit was, particularly the pants which were now somewhat torn. This led to a more important yet infinitely more difficult question. A shapeless, foreign body lodged itself in his throat, restricting his speech. After a few moments of collecting his thoughts, he drew in a deep breath attempting to pass the air through his vocal cords – no sound came out. He tried again, "Relena......?", he trailed off, "Were you......?" he couldn't force the rest of his question out of his wind pipe; but he didn't have to.  
  
"No", she promptly cut in.  
  
She could see weight evaporate off of her bodyguard as he processed what was just said, only to see some condense and cling back on as he prepared himself for the next question.  
  
"You would tell me if you were, right?", He asked in the most concerned voice he could manage, eyes gazing into hers, looking for any sign of hesitation.  
  
Relena looked down at the floor, trying to escape the penetrating scans of Heero's intense cobalt eyes. 'Would I?', she thought, 'probably not.'  
  
Heero's face, save the eyes was emotionless, "Relena, look at me", Heero demanded.  
  
Relena shifted her eyes back to meet his, and faced his penetrating gaze once again.  
  
"It's important that if something like that did happen, you tell me", He continued.  
  
This was so irritating, the last thing Relena needed was to be talked to like a little girl. "I'm not a child, Heero!"  
  
Anger swelled up again and burst from it's encasing, "Well, you're acting like it!"  
  
Taken back by Heero's sudden outburst, Relena broke eye contact again.  
  
"You and your body are both property of the state, right now and it's my job to maintain it. And right now, Relena, you're making my job a lot more difficult then it needs to be, so you can either cooperate or I'll use force like last time." He paused to give both of them a moment to think. It was a bluff, but it certainly sounded enough like an ultimatum.  
  
The florescent lights caught off of another drop of salty water that had been gliding down Relena's already moistened cheek.  
  
"I don't want to use force though", he went on, "so please, just tell me what happened." Swallowing air, he waiting for her response.  
  
"He had been stalking me when he was caught by the authorities", she began. "He was on top of me; I struggled but I couldn't get him off. And then........."  
  
Heero leaned in closer, tense with the anxiety of what Relena was about to say.  
  
The last barrier had been breached and the young woman broke back into her agonizing sobing. "And then Tyler pulled him off and brutalized him right in front of me", she forced out.  
  
That wasn't what Heero was expecting but, all the better; it could have been worse. "So you weren't......... raped?"  
  
"No", Relena answered between her tears.  
  
Heero settled down on the floor next to her, just watching, just watching the external manifestation of her inner turmoil. It was agony watching her cry like that; he'd never seen Relena so upset about something in all the time he knew her. Rage was being brewed within the pit of his stomach, a volatile caldron ready to ignite with the mere pinch of instigation. How dare anyone do this to his Relena; He'd see Tyler's head on a pike before this was over, of that he swore. After several eternities of minutes he cautiously tried putting his arm around her shoulder but retracted it again when she her body jolted violently, either from a heavy sob or physical contact. 'I thought she'd be comforted by that', he silently muttered.  
  
More time passed by as Heero examined the pattern of speckles in one of the nearby floor tiles, until he finally decided to break the less then rhythmic clockwork of Relena's weeps; "Sorry", he stated, "I'm sorry I hurt you Relena." He paused; no reply, "I was only looking out for your best interests." His old friend's sobs began to lessen a little but that was all he got, "Damn it Relena; I just didn't want anything to happen to you."  
  
After several more minutes she mustered up the control to say something, "Heero, is that how you see me?"  
  
He struggled to find clarification in her face, "What do you mean? You're crying; I see that."  
  
"No", she wined while her head rocked back in forth, "He said he loved me; Jacob Deter said he did what he did because he loved me."  
  
A callous snort abruptly cut in; "Bastard", Heero accused.  
  
"Am I a bastard too?", she replied.  
  
Heero's eyes narrowed as he tried to connect what Relena just said.  
  
"He actually believed it", she further explained, "He thought that what he did – his stalking me and all – were acts of love."  
  
The blue eyed Japanese man slowly began to open his mouth while he tried to decode what she was trying to get at; "and........."  
  
The frustrated woman abruptly leaned forward baled out an exasperated gasp, "Don't you see?"  
  
The statue she was talking to simply continued with his dumbfounded eye- cocked expression.  
  
"Six days ago I tried to jump you Heero!", she finally shrieked.  
  
Heero shrugged, "I said it was all right; you had a lot to drink", he offered.  
  
"That's no excuse Heero! And when we were young", she continued, "when I followed you, I thought it was okay, because.........", she swallowed , wiped a tear from her eye and took a deep breath, "I belong locked up somewhere too, don't I?"  
  
Heero gazed back into the pristine, pleading, azure eyes while he searched for the right response.  
  
"Just say it Heero!", she got up to her knees, holding her small delicate hand tightly to her breasts, while her mouth quivered, waiting for the inevitable, heart shattering answer, "Be honest!"  
  
"Relena", Heero cautiously started, "the difference between you and that pervert is that you never struck me as a threat yourself."  
  
"Th, then why......?", she began.  
  
"Of course, I was concerned that you might betray my position but if it came right down to it I knew I could handle you if worse came to worse."  
  
"That still doesn't.........", she paused, "make me any better."  
  
"Besides", Heero looked down at the floor before continuing, "had that happened it's not like........." He stopped, unsure how to continue.  
  
Relena looked at him with interest, "it's not like......?", she urged him on.  
  
"I'm a guy", he stated, "we have to take what we can get."  
  
Her heart nearly broke free from her chest as the words spilled out of Heero's mouth.  
  
Heero turned the brightest shade of red Relena had ever seen. "There was a time when I decided that if you ever did anything like that I'd", he hesitated before continuing, "take advantage of it, but........."  
  
"Then why didn't you", she relaxed a little while she pondered what she never expected to hear from Heero's mouth.  
  
"You're a beautiful woman", Heero started, "and you were a beautiful girl too. I don't think there are very many men who wouldn't enjoy a........."  
  
She half heartedly held back a smirk; "good night", she offered.  
  
"Yeah", he reluctantly admitted, "but when it came down to it I just couldn't. Things have changed; it's my responsibility to protect you and that even means from myself."  
  
"Yourself?", It was her turn to be confused, "Why, would you need to protect me from yourself? I mean, your still not trying to kill me, right?"  
  
"No, it would be awkward and I don't want to knock you up; got it", he snapped. "I couldn't live with myself if I did that to you Relena. Your life would be over. Don't you see that?"  
  
She wasn't sure whether she was happy or sad to hear Heero say that, "And what would you do if you got me pregnant?"  
  
"I'd do whatever I needed to, to make amends", he said abruptly.  
  
"Would you marry me?", she questioned.  
  
"Don't even go there, Relena", Heero climbed to his feet, "I could never be everything you want me to be."  
  
Relena snagged his arm as he tried to walk away, "Wait, what is that supposed to mean?"  
  
"It means", Heero took a breath and gathered his thoughts, "there are things about me you don't know, or want to know. We're complete opposites. I'll never be what you deserve or want so just......... just stop looking here for it."  
  
"No, you sit back down", she demanded.  
  
Heero simply looked back at her.  
  
"That's an order Yuy."  
  
After a few second's delay Heero reluctantly followed his order. After he planted himself next to the young woman she placed her hand on his shoulder.  
  
"How do you know what I want?", she demanded, "I'm not even sure I know what I want so I know you certainly don't. For all you know all I wanted was a one night stand; have you ever thought about that?"  
  
Heero raised his right eyebrow slightly, giving Relena a puzzled look, "For nine years?", he questioned bluntly.  
  
"That's not the point, Heero!", she snarled back, "The point is: stop assuming you know what I want!"  
  
The muscles in Heero's neck and shoulders tensed as the anger and frustration laced in her lecture began rubbing off on him. "All I have to give you are my combat skills and my hated name", he intervened her rant with his own, "Yuy isn't a name associated with peace anymore Relena, I'm secretive for a reason. I can see the headlines now! 'PRINCESS OF PEACE WITH MASS MURDERER'".  
  
"You're not a murderer, Heero!", she corrected, "All the gundam pilots were given full pardons for your actions."  
  
"Great! The next time some widow with a gun shows up I can take out that pardon and send her off on her way!", her bodyguard sarcastically sneered. "Did I ever tell you what happened to Duo?"  
  
Relena didn't reply, but rather, she chose to glare at him.  
  
As frightening as Heero knew Relena could be when she got angry, he wasn't about to stop, nor was he surprised. What did surprise him was how angry he was, with her. 'How can she be so stupid', he thought, 'doesn't she see I'm doing this for her own good?.' He threw his doubts behind and proceeded with the story; "About two months ago some nut with an ax to grind found out where Duo was living. He broke into the house while they were out and went after Hilde with a knife after she returned."  
  
"What happened?", Relena turned her face away and looked downward as her heavy blue eyes beheld the image of the scene taken from her imagination.  
  
"Duo came home. I never told you before because I knew you would worry." For an agonizing short while nothing was said; in that time both Relena and Heero reflected on the implications of this incident. Ironically, Heero was the most disheartened of the two. What had he been thinking before? Everything he just said were perfectly good reasons to keep their relationship professional, 'I've got to stop listening to Duo', he self- lectured. "Relena, I can't make you live like me; you don't belong hiding in the shadows."  
  
"It's worth a shot! I'm certainly not happy in the spotlight. Compared to having absolutely no privacy, hiding sounds good to me."  
  
"But what will happen to the world if you leave? Who's going to maintain peace when you're gone?"  
  
"Heero.........", Relena breathed a heavy sigh, "The world isn't at peace because of me, the world is at peace because that's what the people truly want. Someone else can be their representative."  
  
"Relena", Heero began, "You are still an important part of ensuring peace; as long as your around the people have a symbol to look to. You're the greatest hero of our times, just having you around is assuring."  
  
"Well that's all kind of irrelevant right now", Relena stated with a somber tone, "It looks like Tyler won."  
  
"Won?", Heero questioned, "how?"  
  
"I failed Heero, Tyler had to save me from that guy, he won."  
  
"Bullshit!", exclaimed Heero, "I just thought of something."  
  
The first glimmer of hope in the last few days shined on Relena as she perked up, "What?"  
  
"You're wearing the shoes that the Preventers issued you, right?"  
  
"Well, I think so", Relena replied.  
  
With that, Heero took hold of Relena's foot and began clawing at that back heel, until he found it.  
  
Soon , she realized what Heero was planning, "but Heero.........", she called out as he slid a small but sharp blade out of her shoe's sole, "How is a knife going to help us?" She recalled the time when she was issued those shoes. She vaguely remembered having it explained to her that if the occasion ever arose there was a neo-titanium knife hidden in the sole of each shoe.  
  
Heero held the two thin blades gingerly in his hands, examining them with a hawk-like intensity. "This, might just do it", he thought aloud.  
  
"Do what?", Relena inquired, "You're not planning on fighting him are you?"  
  
He gave no verbal answer.  
  
"No!", she clung to Heero's arm, "He'll kill you Heero! You couldn't beat him with a gun, let alone two knives."  
  
"Maybe I can", he dryly stated, "I think if I cut those cords going from the back of his head he'll lose control of all of his equipment."  
  
"But, how are you going to do that? He can read our minds, remember."  
  
"That's why I'm going to need you", he replied as he took the puzzled woman's and helped her to her feet.  
  
"W.........what!", she stammered , "What am I supposed to do about that?"  
  
"Simple, distract me", he proceeded to lead her out of the restroom.  
  
"But, wait!", Relena halted in an effort to get an explanation, "How is that going to help us any?"  
  
Though he somewhat annoyed by the delay, Heero maintained his monotone composure, took off his jacket and concealed the two knives within it. "I don't think he can read our thoughts nearly as well as he would have us believe. As long as I'm at least partially distracted I may be able to get the drop on him when he shows up again."  
  
"Oh", Relena thought about this as the two made there way across the catwalk, "But wait, won't I have to be distracted too?"  
  
When Heero's ears received the sound vibrations made by Relena's vocal chords his feet stopped moving and a single word escaped his mouth, "Damn"  
  
~*~*~ TIME: Unknown ~*~*~  
  
"The Wright Brothers tested the first airplane where?", Heero inquired.  
  
Heero and Relena were sitting Indian-style on the padded platform which they had spent to better part of past few days.  
  
"Um......... The former United States?", she answered.  
  
"Hn.........", Heero snorted, "That's a pretty large area. Can you narrow it down any?"  
  
"Um, um.........", the blonde politician stuttered.  
  
"Come on", her bodyguard goaded.  
  
"I don't know", she hissed back, "I'm a littlie distracted by those two knives hidden underneath your jacket"  
  
"Errg", Heero grunted in exasperation, "you're not cooperating here Relena."  
  
It was a statement of the obvious but Heero had a point, Relena had half a mind to try and throw those two knives down that bottomless pit of darkness but on one hand she wasn't entirely sure how far she could get and then there was another part of her mind that felt that this was their best chance. In either case, she was deathly afraid of what Tyler might do to them if he found out about this plan. They had to hide this from Tyler, but the question was, how? How could she distract both of them from the fact that Heero was plotting an ambush?  
  
Heero sighed, "Listen", he buried his weary face in his hand, "I know you don't approve of this but this is our only chance. If we don't stop this psycho now, he's going to destroy everything we've worked to create."  
  
"I......... how do you know we're not mistaken Heero?"  
  
"What?", Heero raised a questioning eyebrow as his cobalt irises focused on his charge's face.  
  
"I mean", Relena started, "I've worked so hard to maintain peace just to find out that all this had been going on underneath my very nose the whole time. Even a member of my cabinet was in on this. Maybe the only way to truly maintain peace is to......... to........."  
  
"Turn the entire world into a bunch of networked cyborgs?", Heero but in, "I know you don't believe that. And even if Tyler was right, I'd rather live my life at war but have free will, then at peace with no free will of my own."  
  
Relena's cerulean eyes stared blankly at the padded floor beneath her as she pondered this. It wasn't really peace that the people wanted so much, was it? People were more concerned with not being forced to fight rather then living in total peace.  
  
"Listen", Heero continued, "there are millions of people out there like Tyler - maybe not with such a crazy plan - but they all think that they know what's best for everyone. And when they do get their way they usually end up making things worse for everybody."  
  
A minuscule smile began to rise from "Well wouldn't that describe all us politicians?"  
  
Heero found himself slightly amused but maintained his composure and focused.  
  
"I'm sorry Heero, and thank you; that's just what I needed to hear."  
  
With her self-esteem momentarily back, she could focus on the problem at hand, which was how to keep their minds off the fact that Heero was planning an ambush.  
  
"Okay so, what's the answer?", Heero plainly asked.  
  
"Heero, this trivia game isn't working!", she quickly replied.  
  
"Do you have a better idea?", he challenged back.  
  
He had a point, she really didn't have anything in mind, nor did they have much to work with. No TV, no radio, no books; all they had was each other. It was about that time that Relena got an idea.  
  
"I'm trying the best I can", Heero started, "but you need to cooperate so.........", about then Heero was interrupted by a not entirely unfamiliar situation. Surprised by Relena's rash move he instinctively, pushed Relena away, in effect breaking the lip-lock she had made with Heero's mouth. "W, what are you doing?"  
  
Trying her best not to sound annoyed she bluntly answered his question, "Distracting you."  
  
Before Heero had time to consider this she was on him again, sucking on his mouth like hard candy. His first thought was to push her away like he did last time but as she coaxed his mouth open to meet hers he began to realize that this wasn't such a bad way to spend what could very well be his last moments. So, instead of rejecting or ignoring her like he had always done when his "old friend" made these romantic advances like this, embraced her, for the first time not caring how foolish it was.  
  
Neither of them were sure exactly how long they spent caught up in each other's mouths. It seemed as though it might have been a long time, yet still, not long at all. It seemed to Heero to be far too soon to have to hear that condescending voice again.  
  
"Do you two need a room?", suspended by his complex network of tentacles, Tyler loomed just on the other end of the platform.  
  
Heero was red - embarrassment for being caught in such a compromising position and red with anger for being stopped. His Prussian blue eyes, no longer aware of the young woman he had rolled on top of, narrowed on their captor. Rage full thoughts of all manners of torture and painful things to do to Tyler galloped about his mind taunting him, until at last, he found one in reach.  
  
"Forgive me for being rude but I'd prefer you'd", he paused for a moment, debating on whether to use more civilized terminology or not, "suck face in private rather then out in the open", Tyler continued on as he looked and motioned out towards the other end, "I've provided plenty of space for you to do whatever you see fit to each other over there. And Heero", he began to turn his head back to meet him, "I thought that sort of thing was against........."  
  
Heero had jumped onto Tyler, thrusting one of the knives into the his cybernetic, pallid chest while he frantically sawed away at the cluster of wires leading from his hairless skull. A satisfying snap indicated the severing of one of the wires followed by two of the left tentacles falling limp.  
  
Fully aware of the now apparent plot on his life, Tyler feverishly pushed against Heero's body but, to little more effect then to slow his attacker down.  
  
Relena gasped as the sight of the man she had just been kissing locked in mortal combat with the deadly cyborg and she soon began to fully apprehend what she had done.  
  
Tyler's hand clamped down on Heero's arm, the compression sent flashes of pain through Heero's nerves but he couldn't yield. There was another snap and Tyler's body began to limp on its suspensions. Heero gave a passing thought to what it would mean for both of them if he cut the wire cluster all the way through but he didn't let it distract him. His duty was clear, his course was set and he would continue as long as his body would allow. For the first time since they had been captured, Heero no longer saw the unyielding confidence which had been predominant in Tyler's eyes.  
  
It seemed as though Heero might actually succeed in his plan. Tyler was no fighter, just a scientist, and Heero's superior skill was obvious. However, his superior equipment gave Heero a significant advantage.  
  
One of the mechanical hands clamped down on the arm Heero was using to cut the wires, attempting to hold it back. Heero strained to reach but the grip of the machine was proving to be too great. His hand began to feel num from the lack of blood, still he couldn't allow himself to fail. He summoned up the last of his reserve strength and forced his hand just far enough forwards to slit another wire through.  
  
The mechanical hand went limp leaving no barrier between Heero and the rest of the connections, but as he forced his hand forward to make the final incisions.  
  
Heero's hypothesis seemed to be right and now only a half inch of wires and cable were between Heero and shutting down his aggressor for good. He had nearly given into hope as his knife touched the all malleable wires and a point metal tentacle pierced clear through his forearm; bone, flesh and tendons.  
  
Tyler pined Heero down on the platform by his neck with his remaining mechanical limbs. Blood was pouring out of Heero's wound into a growing puddle of red. Tyler stood over him struggling to force breath into his punctured lung, his right side noticeably limped under the left while blood and some other peculiar fluid began to ooze from the incision which Heero's knife still rested in. Tyler shakily clamped his hand on the knife's handle and unsheathed the blade from his chest. Another rush of fluid escaped from the wound while he coughed out another puddles, but as quickly as the knife left, the wound began to close. Delicate, ceiling bound metal hands descended and began to repair and replace the damage wires and cables on Tyler's scull as his body gradually regained its strength.  
  
He looked down at the man he had pinned beneath him, soaked in blood and mech fluids. His loss of blood had weakened his resistance to a pathetic one handed attempt to release the metal bind over his neck. "Well, it seems I overestimated the abilities of this cyborg model. I'll have to improve upon it." Tyler's voice was an enraged hiss, no taint of arrogance, only wrath, "Tell me one reason why I shouldn't remove your head."  
  
Heero was unable to give a coherent response, his arm had nearly been cut off by Tyler's tentacle and he was losing blood quickly. Dizzy and cold from the loss of blood and pain, everything was becoming distant, dark and blurry.  
  
"No don't !", Relena's shrill shriek turned Tyler's attention, "You can't!"  
  
"Oh really?", Tyler retorted, "Miss Relena Peacecraft indeed! You were planning this with him. I've given the both of you far too much breathing space it seems. Let's see how you'd like being taken prisoner for real, yes. Let's see how the hypocrite fairs in a real prison, I think I'll start right here."  
  
"NO! Please!"  
  
"And why shouldn't I? After a malicious stunt like that how could you possibly justify keeping him alive?"  
  
"Because it's not right", Relena answered.  
  
Tyler snorted, "So, that didn't stop you."  
  
"You're right", admitted the blonde politician, "But, I thought you were trying to achieve peace too. That being the case, don't you at least feel embarrassed about even having this debate with me?" It was a long shot, but it was all that she had left; hopefully he would listen to reason.  
  
A glare was Tyler's response. He looked back down at the helpless man beneath him with a new disdain. The mechanical claw he had around his neck seemed to tense as though it were a real muscle as he debated on whether to clamp down on or release Heero's neck. There were no words in the end, only action; Tyler withdrew his claw and turned away.  
  
Relena rushed to kneel beside her fallen protector. The hole in his arm was nearly four centimeters in diameter, all that held it together was some torn and dying meat. The loss of blood seemed to be slowing down but Heero was even less responsive then ever; he looked pale and was nearly limp. It seemed that it wouldn't matter what Tyler's decision had been, Heero would die anyway, and there was nothing Relena could do about it. "Can you save him?", she meekly questioned.  
  
Tyler – who had been about to leave – stopped and turned back to face her, "I certainly could, but I don't see why I should."  
  
"Because He'll die!", she cried back as tears began to rush down her face.  
  
"Not necessarily", he plainly retorted, "He'll certainly be one arm short though."  
  
"Please.........", she begged.  
  
"And why do you care so much?", it was a rhetorical question, he already new the answer.  
  
"Because", she looked back at Heero for a moment, "because I love him."  
  
Tyler only gazed at her with his blank metallic brown eyes.  
  
"Please.........", she tried again.  
  
"Under one condition", he finally yielded.  
  
"Yes", Relena's face lit with renewed hope, "What is the condition?"  
  
"You're awfully inquisitive for someone so desperate", Tyler goaded.  
  
"I at least deserve to know what I'm agreeing to", she shot back.  
  
A devilish smirk finally reappeared on Tyler's face, "security protocols", he answered. 


	12. Relena Hits Rock Bottom

AN: Wow, I got this one out with only two months delay. I seem to be picking up the pace. Please enjoy and read and review.  
  
The Beehive  
  
Chapter 12: Relena Hits Rock Bottom  
  
DATE: February 21, 203 AC LOCATION: The Beehive Facility  
  
~*~*~ TIME: Unknown ~*~*~  
  
It didn't take long for Tyler to assemble the needed equipment to regenerate Heero's arm. Before long he returned with a number of bizarre instruments, what looked like some type of a personal operating table for his arm and bottles full of a silver fluid.  
  
"I'll need you to step away from the patient", Tyler instructed.  
  
Relena took another look at the fallen warrior. Tyler had seared the wound shut to stop the bleeding but the nearly detached half of his arm looked dead.  
  
Tyler's cyborg eyes narrowed on the limb, piercing deep beneath the surface of the pale flesh. With a kind of detached pride he stated, "It seems I did more damage then I initially thought at first. That limb will have to amputated before it's rebuilt."  
  
As Tyler fit a metal ring around Heero's upper arm Relena turned her crystal blue eyes away, for fear of seeing any more blood. "Shouldn't you sterilize the environment first?"  
  
"The bees will eliminate any foreign bodies they find, so there's little chance of infection"; he answered.  
  
"I see", her voice drifted off as she tried to think of something else to say, "Those bees are very useful, aren't they?"  
  
His answer was mechanical and plain, "Yes."  
  
Relena's ears caught a short hissing sound coming from Tyler's direction, "What was that?"  
  
"Heero's arm."  
  
The smell of burnt flesh made its way to Relena's nostrils in conformation. "He's alright, isn't he?"  
  
"Yes, he will be", replied the increasingly impatient cyborg. "Did you want to keep the arm as a souvenir?"  
  
The thought unsettled Relena's stomach, making her feel as though she were ready to vomit. She managed to restrain herself and for about a minute there was no dialogue between them, only the clicks and clanks of busy machinery. Afraid to look back and risking a passing glimpse of something she probably didn't want to see, Relena focused on her shoe. Just looking at it, no one would have thought that there was anything significant about the shoe at all. It still had some mud caked on it from when she and Heero almost drown, but it still seemed pearly white with rounded toes. The only thing the least bit peculiar about it was that the soles were slightly thicker then normal shoes - and one would still be left with the impression that its only purpose was to make her appear taller - it seemed bizarre that there had been weapons hidden in them.  
  
Partially blaming the shoes for the current predicament, she looked away and noticed that Heero's jacket was in a wrinkled heap on the floor, not far from her. She held it to her breast while gently rubbing the fine material with her soft creamy hand. Since Heero had removed the jacket in order to hide the knives, it had been spared from any damage or bloodstains.  
  
'I should have stopped him' she chided herself. Salty tears began to secrete from her eyes and slip down her cheek. The moist trail left in their wake slightly stung as they dried. 'It's all my fault', she whimpered while augmenting her grip on the jacket.  
  
"I'm done", Tyler announced, relatively emotionless. He gestured towards a long metal tube-like instrument engulfing the entire length of where Heero's arm should have been. Attached to the device were several capsules and, what appeared to be, IVs. "The bees will reconstruct his arm from the remains of the previous one", he explained, "but make sure that neither of you try to remove the bio-construction chamber until I tell you so. If the chamber is removed before the bees are removed from his body he might endure any number of slow deaths and painful deaths."  
  
The caramel blond girl's eyes took note of and fixated on a sight that she had rarely seen until a few days prior – Heero with no shirt on. She was too depressed to take any enjoyment out of it though. She just crawled over beside him and pulled his jacket over his mighty chest like a blanket.  
  
As she straitened the jacket over Heero's tight torso she came across peculiar bulge in one of the internal pockets. She reached in and procuring a small, velvety box. It took a few more seconds for her to fully comprehend what it was and the implications – Heero was planning to get engaged.  
  
It was as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to Relena's chest as she realized that he would never love her the way she wanted him to. Her light sobbing had transformed into a violent tempest of tears. Her mind raced to try and find another explanation: that he might have been holding it for a friend, or that he found it on the street; none of them could explain his behavior though. It wouldn't have even been as devastating if she had at least known he was seeing someone, she thought she had at least been entitled to know that much. How could he have been so insensitive?  
  
Relena had been so consumed with shock and grief that she had hardly noticed that Tyler was still looming over her until he cleared his throat. She looked up into his smirking face, slightly disgusted with how he gleaned pleasure from her emotional turmoil, and broke down; "Who is she?" Relena asked, with more then a tinge of resentment.  
  
"I thought you didn't approve of my mind reading ability." The smirk stayed strong; the irony was far too perfect.  
  
"I don't care anymore!", she shrieked, "If you know just tell me!"  
  
"Fine, I'll give you a hint", the self-made cyborg continued his smile. "First off, you know her personally."  
  
The comment was another sack in Relena's gut, now she felt betrayed and she scanned through all of the women she knew, trying to deduce who it might be.  
  
"She has blond hair", Tyler continued, "actually more of a light brown color; fair skinned; she's a bit short; she can be slow at times...", Tyler paused and became somber, "...but on the whole, she's a kind and beautiful woman... I guess Heero is a lucky man."  
  
This did little to change Relena's mental state; she still tossed around several possibilities – the most notable being a certain member of the security staff at the Presidential Residents – while lamenting.  
  
Of all the crimes that Tyler had committed, and all of the things he had done to Relena, so far, it seemed odd to him that he already regretted this one so much. As illogical as it was, the pathetic sobs of this woman touched him. Still, he couldn't seem to find it in himself to tell her that she was the one he was referring to. "If it's any consolation", he finally spoke up, "you'll be unconscious in less then a minute."  
  
She looked up with a questioning horror as her eyes still spilling tears.  
  
Two mechanical hands clamped down on her shoulders while a third, carrying some type of needle, drew nearer. "It's time you hold up your end of the bargain", he explained, "You don't want to be awake when I put this thing in you."  
  
Too worn to struggle or argue, she simply went limp and accepted the inevitable. The prick was only momentary and the cold fluid was only a small discomfort. It was a small price to pay for the peaceful nothingness that overtook her mind. There was no more Heero, no more pain, no more famished lust, loneliness or unanswered love.  
  
LOCATION: Preventer's Base Camp Hospital  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 9:43 AM ~*~*~  
  
"So Quatre, I hear you totally tweaked out at the mission briefing", Duo addressed his now bedridden comrade.  
  
"I'm not sure what happened", Quatre massaged his scalp with his hand trying to think of a way to describe his experience. "It's like, when the people I care about are hurt, I can sometimes feel it. Normally, I don't notice it but, this........."  
  
"Can you tell fortunes?", Duo smirked at his at his attempted joke.  
  
The humor was lost on Quatre though, "Duo, this is no laughing matter. Heero and Relena are both in a lot of pain, it's never felt this strong before."  
  
Duo pondered this for a moment. He wanted to believe his old friend, or perhaps he wanted to not believe him, he wasn't sure. However, in the end he decided that Quatre is just worrying too much. "You know what I think", Duo looked back at his friend, "I think you just need some rest pal. I'm sure Heero and Relena are going to be alright"  
  
"Ahg!", Quatre grunted, "that's what Sally and the doctors said but..."  
  
Trying to defuse the situation Duo smiled as best he could, "We don't think you're crazy or anything, we just think that this whole thing has been very stressful... for all of us", he offered. "And you know, out of all of us, you're the one closest to both Heero and Relena, so..."  
  
"I...", the blond Arab thought to argue but decided against it, "...I guess you've got a point there. And it's not like doom saying will do us any good anyhow."  
  
"Yeah, that's right so just relax, lie back down on the hospital bed and get some rest"  
  
It was somewhat comforting watching Quatre take his advise but at the same time he missed the external pessimism. All of the gundam pilots had recognized that Quatre seemed to have a sixth sense about things, but when facing a situation this dire, the last thing that Duo or anyone else needed was Quatre telling them how the two people who needed saving are in pain. However, Duo was now facing the dilemma himself – without Quatre to be abnormally pessimistic the only person left around Duo to worry was Duo.  
  
'Oh Heero; what have you and that girl gotten yourself into this time'  
  
LOCATION: The Beehive Facility  
  
~*~*~ TIME: Unknown ~*~*~  
  
Consciousness, or something like it, began to creep into Heero's mind. At first it didn't seem as though there was anything unusual about his situation – he had no readily available memories to compare to. However, with time it became more and more obvious to him that there was something holding down his arm, which wasn't normal. Soon after, the realization that he had no shirt on, followed by the discovery that his jacket was draped over him like a blanket. His situation still didn't make any sense though, in that he couldn't seem to remember exactly how it happened. Then, as the device began to beep, it struck him like lightning. His first instinct was to try and sit up, but the strange device on his arm prevented him from doing that. When he reached over to try and free his arm, pain shot up his spine and through his entire body. It felt as though nails, heated to three hundred degrees had some how lodged themselves in every crevice of his body. The agony was short lived, however, and subsided as soon as it had started, leaving only an eerie numb sensation.  
  
"I wouldn't recommend that", an all too familial patronizing voice advised him, "It's not quite done yet."  
  
"err..." Heero attempted to rise but was stopped short as the blaring pain devoured his senses again.  
  
"I installed a device in your back", explained the bionic man as he stared down at his captive, "with a mere thought I can cause your brain to register the sharpest pain imaginable. It's also designed, so that if it no longer registers that I'm alive, it kills you. But of course, I could also activate that feature manually if I wanted or needed to."  
  
Heero glared back that his captor. The monotone confidence in his voice goaded the Japanese man's free limbs into striking position but he was forced to refrain. He scanned his surroundings - taking note of anything that could possibly be used to his advantage. Seeing that he hadn't been moved and that there was nothing useable in the vicinity his mind moved to a much more pressing matter, "What did you do to Relena?"  
  
"I installed the same device in her", he plainly replied, "She had woken up before you and wanted to cry in the restroom. Actually she wanted to check for scars too, but mostly she just wanted to be alone. My work is flawless though", he stated with something akin to pride, "I left nothing that should be visibly noticeable."  
  
The two men exchanged glares until a high-pitched beeping sound came from the device around Heero's arm.  
  
"It's done", stated Tyler.  
  
The tube opened with a click and Heero's arm was free. He looked at it with awe, as though it were made from a precious metal. After clenching and unclenching his fist, still unsure of whether it were real, he rose to his feet and looked around for his shirt. He found the blood stained, tattered fabric lying in a heap only a few feet away. After deciding that the remains of the shirt were no longer useful to him he buttoned his jacket around his unclothed chest. He looked back at Tyler with another of his death glares before dashing off to the catwalk to try and find Relena.  
  
He ran down the catwalk to the restroom, calling out Relena's name but receiving no answered besides from his echo. He was nearly ready to turn back and demand that Tyler confess what he did when he made visual conformation, right where he was told, the bathroom – huddled in the same corner she had been before.  
  
Suspecting that she had been crying again (doubtlessly blaming herself), he began to prepare some comforting words. However as he drew nearer, he became aware that Relena's shirt, jacket and bra were on the floor, leaving her completely topless.  
  
"Heero?", she shakily called out.  
  
His widened blue eyes fixate on the two soft bulges of her chest. They seemed very peculiar; the way they simply protruded from her body seemed somewhat more natural when contained in fabric. Even more peculiar was how much more pleasant they were released from her clothing. A fantasy of groping those two soft lobes began to occupy Heero's mind and he became acutely aware of the fact that his own shirt was missing.  
  
"I found the ring", the blond girl in the corner stated. Her face seemed deadpan, but the tone of her voice suggested that she was hiding some sort of sadness.  
  
Immediately Heero felt around in his pocket, he had almost completely forgotten about blasted, spur of the moment plan of his. Unable to find it he looked up to see the opened black box resting on Relena's palm. It seemed odd to him how apathetic she seemed, he would have thought she'd have been more excited. It seemed like a mixed blessing though; on one hand, he had been thinking that he shouldn't have even thought about it, let alone bought a ring and now he had been cornered into it; on the other, he didn't have to worry about it any more. It also didn't seem like it would be horrible to be married to Relena, as long as she was all right with it. He had virtually lived with her for the past five years anyway and as long as it made her happy any calculated inconvenience on his part seemed worth it. Furthermore, from his view of things he could certainly get used to the perks.  
  
"Why..? Why didn't you tell me?", she asked.  
  
"I wasn't sure if I should", answered the somewhat puzzled bodyguard, "There are a lot of complicated obstacles. I thought I explained myself earlier."  
  
Upon hearing Heero's comment Relena became angry, "No, obviously you didn't!"  
  
"You wanted me to be more... emotional. I thought you would be happy"  
  
"Happy!", Relena could hardly believe what she was hearing, "How dense are you! I don't want this!" She snapped the box shut and tossed it to the side.  
  
The words had a strange effect on Heero, it seemed to hit him most heavily under his rib cage and caused something intangible to lodge itself in his throat, forcing him to swallow air. With no other purpose then to make a noise, he simply said, "I see..." He would have thought it odd to feel hurt by this rejection; it actually took a load off of his mind, yet that's how he felt, nonetheless.  
  
He walked across the room toward his charge and picked up her white jacket on the way. As he finally drew near, she rose to her feet, giving him a full view of the fair skin and gentle curves of her naked torso. He froze, paralyzed by the sight of her gently curved hips and those two delightfully rounded pillows.  
  
"This is what I am to you, aren't I?"  
  
Heero took another gulp of air and fished through the swimming desires in his brain for something intelligent to say. He began to wrap her jacket around her nakedness when she brushed her soft fingers down the crest of his tight chest.  
  
"Do you want this Heero?", she narrowed her eyes seductively, "You'd like that wouldn't you?", she pressed herself against his body and grinded her hips to his own.  
  
Heero dropped the jacket, letting it slide down Relena's back to the floor. Something seemed amiss; this erratic behavior seemed somewhat out of character but the prospect of releasing his pent up sexual tension was fast taking hold of his better judgment. "R...Relena?"  
  
She pressed her lips to his and undid the buttons on his jacket revealing his abs.  
  
"Relena...", Heero struggled to maintain control, "If you don't stop now..."  
  
She did not yield; she would not yield. Her entire life had shattered, leaving her only a few broken shards with which to salvage. If someone else had Heero's love, she would take his body, no matter the cost.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
When the pleasure subsided, it dawned on Relena that she had done something awful. The damage was done and she lay dying from her emotional wounds, trapped beneath Heero's satisfied body as he caught his breath. Did he even care that he just cheated on his fiancée with her? Could he even comprehend the guilt and turmoil she felt. If she were covered in human waste instead, she would have felt cleaner; this filth she was in now would never wash off her soul.  
  
Heero gently nipped at her collarbone but she seemed strangely unresponsive; she simply lay under him with her eyes closed tight, "Relena..?"  
  
The words slipped out of her mouth, shakily and cold, "I hate you."  
  
The room seemed to freeze and Heero simply stared at her wide eyed and shocked, "What..?"  
  
"Get off of me", she demanded; her voice was too cold to sound angry.  
  
Heero complied, withdrawing and rolling off lifelessly; her sharp mood swing had caught him completely off guard. "I don't understand", he sounded like wounded puppy, "wasn't I..?"  
  
"Oh, you were good", she angrily answered as she sat up; "you were good at fucking me; turning me into a heart-breaking whore. You did a very good job." And with that she burst into tears and stormed out of the room.  
  
With some faltering, her lover chased after, "What are you talking about!", he demanded.  
  
She had nothing left, nothing left at all. She had lost her freedom, her ideal and just now her virginity to a man who belonged to another – a man she thought she knew. It had been too much; she couldn't go on.  
  
Stark naked, she leaned over the railing of the catwalk and looked down; all she had to do was lean a bit more and it would be over, she could finally rest forever. She shifter her weight, a tear dripped from her nose and caught a distant sparkle as it fell down into the darkness. Her balance was lost and her soft belly pivoted on the fulcrum of the cold hard steel. It would only be a moment longer before she joined her tear in a freefall but as her body began to tilt over the edge, a strong hand caught her and wrapped around her waist.  
  
"What's the matter with you!" Heero yelled as he pulled the struggling Relena back from the brink.  
  
She kicked and flailed wildly, trying to get lose. "Let me go!"  
  
"No! I won't!" Heero asserted while he took hold of her arm and began dragging her away from the edge. Despite her struggling Heero finally manage pin her down, which considering their state of undress might have seemed very erotic had Relena not just attempted suicide and had they not just had sex anyway.  
  
After a few moments, she resigned to the fact that Heero was a lot stronger then her and stopped thrashing. "Who is it?", she asked in a tear-filled voice, "who did you cheat on?"  
  
Heero's face went from being cross and concerned to being cross and confused, "What?"  
  
"Don't play games with me!" Relena screeched, "who is she?"  
  
"Relena", Heero struggled to maintain a civil voice, so as not to agitate the woman pinned beneath him any more, "you're not making any sense."  
  
"I know there's someone else, I found the ring, who was it for!?"  
  
"YOU!", a very aggravated Heero Yuy snapped.  
  
Relena froze, wide-eyed and bewildered; she had been prepared nearly any answer but that one. Her mind busied itself trying to make sense at this seemingly nonsensical answer.  
  
Exhausted, mentally from emotional turmoil and physically from injury and exertion, Heero head found itself resting on Relena's breast. "The ring was for you", he repeated as a tear slid down his nose.  
  
Relena, unconsciously placed her hand around his shoulder blade, while she pondered everything that had just happened in a new light.  
  
LOCATION: Darter Corporation Desert Lab (above the Beehive Facility)  
  
~*~*~ TIME: 11:12 PM ~*~*~  
  
"I haven't spotted anyone yet"; Trowa's voice sounded through WuFei's earpiece.  
  
"That's unusual", Sally's voice replied, "Green Leader, this is Blue Leader, do you copy?"  
  
"I hear you, Blue Leader", replied WuFie. It seemed stupid to him to use these code names but he complied anyway.  
  
"Have you seen any guard's your end?"  
  
WuFei, looked up at Bert, one of the preventers in his team. Despite the absence of light, and the camouflage that they all wore, the night-vision goggles let him see Bert's headshake as plane as day.  
  
"Negative", WuFie answered back into his mouthpiece, "we have not detected another living being, neither inside nor outside the building. I'm starting to think that they may only have a handful of men in total."  
  
"Or, they might be setting a trap", Sally replied. "Is everything still alright at your end Red?"  
  
Trowa's answer was short and to the point, "Nothing at all to report."  
  
"Alright", Sally took a moment to gather her thoughts, "Green Team, you move into the main building first. Report any possible hostilities, as soon as they're encountered. If you encounter any problems withdraw immediately. Red team, you move into the appendix warehouse and search it for any signs of personnel, hostages or weapons. If either team needs backup Blue team will be ready to enter either building. Everyone, use extreme caution, understood"  
  
"Roger", Trowa answered first.  
  
"I heard you", WuFei followed.  
  
It might have seemed frightful, had anyone been around to witness it. Five men, clad in camouflage, with all of their faces covered by ski masks, save what the night-vision goggles concealed, stalked across the blacktop carrying large automatic rifles and various instruments of war and subterfuge. They kept low to the ground, hiding behind any available cover, mostly employee's cars.  
  
When they reached the building and still detected no other presence, WuFei also worried that they might be walking into a trap. Don, another member of Green Team, placed a small-computerized device on the door while the other four members backed up against the wall on either side. A few moments passed and Don finally reported, "it should be safe".  
  
WuFei nodded, giving permission for him to proceed.  
  
Don warily placed his hand on the handle and pressed on the release button. Surprisingly, the door opened with no resistance. Don peered into the empty hallway on the other side, his weapon raised but without a target.  
  
As WuFei inched closer a mechanical hand shot out from above the doorframe and pinned Don to the blacktop.  
  
While the other three operatives jumped back in shock, WuFei drew his trusted saber and attempted to cut into the arm with little effect.  
  
"This is Green Two", Bert spoke into his mouthpiece, "we have encountered an unexpected automated system and we have one man down!"  
  
"Stand back!", WuFie instructed as he raised his rifle and took aim. A yellow strobe light emanated from the barrel of his gun, accompanied by a thunderous pitter-patter of combustions. The high-speed metal fragments tore through the makings of the mechanical arm, inciting more to jump out of the hallway from hidden crevices.  
  
Bert, Harry and George opened fire into the hallway aimlessly, warding off the advancements of the other arms or other traps.  
  
WuFei struggled to remove the remaining part of the first hand from Don's chest. Realizing that the mission was already a failure he helped Don to his feet and took his arm around his shoulder for support. "Move out!", WuFei ordered.  
  
The three-gunman halted their barrage and all was quiet. As they hastily began to fall back to the open desert Sally came in on WuFei's earpiece, "Green Team, what's your status?"  
  
"They know we're here", WuFei reported, "We were attacked by some type of mechanical hand when we tried to enter the..."  
  
The Blacktop just ahead of him cracked and swelled up as a giant humanoid form emerged from underneath the surface. There was no decorative or original feature about it. It was about eleven feet tall, with a round body and a head with a single optic sensor. At the end of each arm were three claw-like fingers.  
  
Immediately, the three other preventers opened fire. The lumbering machine simply shrugged it off though and advanced towards their position.  
  
"Blue Leader! We need backup now!" shouted WuFei.  
  
He placed Don in the care of George and dashed into the robot's field of vision. "Get Don out of here!" he ordered as he pulled out his pistol and opened fire. It would have been a futile effort if he had intended to hurt it, but he succeeded in drawing its attention.  
  
A heavy fist shattered the pavement, nearly missing WuFei as he leaped to the side and rolled. He jumped back to his feet as the gargantuan hand picked itself up and attempted another strike, this time trying to swipe at him. However, the machine was far too clumsy to catch WuFei unaware and he simply dodged the crude attack with a back flip.  
  
The Chinese preventer and the robot stared each other down for a moment and then WuFei's night vision went white. He immediately tore the ski mask and goggles of his head, just in time to narrowly escape a sucker punch.  
  
With the grace of a drunken primate, the martial arts master nearly stumbled off balance. He finally observed that the bright light that rendered his night vision useless had in fact emanated from the machine, just in time for it to be turned off. It was an obvious trap, aimed at luring WuFei into replacing the goggles just so he could be blinded again. It would be difficult but he would have to carry on with only a crescent moon and the stars to give light.  
  
The enormous shadowy blob seemed to be chambering another punch but it was difficult to distinguish its exact path. WuFei instead, leaped onto the roof of a nearby car, behind him and seemingly dodged the incoming deathblow. He then nimbly skipped from one car hood to the other, hoping to put some distance between him and the machine.  
  
The sound of creaking metal echoed through the open spaces of the parking lot and was soon accompanied by the silhouette of a car being lifted up against the moon.  
  
WuFei braced himself for any manner of assault. His eyes, which were becoming more adjusted to the dark, darted from one side to the other looking for the best way to escape, should the car be chucked in his direction. Depending on, its speed and trajectory, there seemed to be very few safe places he could get to. All was still for that moment, as WuFei waited for the Robot to make its move.  
  
A loud hissing fireball interrupted the stillness and cut a path through the darkness to the center chest of the robot - exploding on impact. The blinding bright combustion, diverted WuFei's eyes, and made him realize it was a rocket.  
  
The sound of something heavy, falling to the ground, momentarily preceded the sound of a car being smashed by impact. He could only assume that the blow had knocked the robot off its feet, and the car had landed on top of it.  
  
Taken back by his stroke of luck, WuFei looked behind him to note an obscure figure, brandishing a rocket launcher on top of nearby a sand dune.  
  
Sally's orders came quickly and sharply over the his earpiece, "WuFei! Get out of there!"  
  
WuFei needed no more coercion. He fled to the desert with his comrades. This mission was a failure but they would worry about that later. The important thing was that all units made it out alive.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
AN: I know what you're thinking: "You're sick Tumbleweed!" My response: "You bet." 


End file.
